Study level
PhD
Background
Concrete production has substantially increased in the past few decades in order to meet the escalating demands of the construction industry. A tremendous amount of freshwater and river sand is exploited for this reason, raising environmental concerns on a global scale. In a similar way, with the unceasingly increasing usage of vehicles across the globe, the disposal of end-of-life tires is also a substantial environmental concern. Around one billion of these tires are dumped into landfills over the world each year, and very little of it gets recycled.
This research project aims to showcase a solution for the aforementioned challenges by incorporating sea sand and seawater (instead of the conventionally used river sand and freshwater) and recycled tyres in the form of fine rubber aggregates to make concrete more eco-friendly.
Moreover, the inclusion of rubber not only makes the concrete sustainable but also increases its energy absorption capacity and ductility. The outcome of this study will be beneficial for coastal and marine infrastructure especially located in seismic-prone regions.
Research Activities
- Develop an innovative mix design for the proposed sustainable concrete which will have seawater, sea sand and fine rubber aggregates.
- Set up an efficient experimental method and conduct a set of experiments on single-skin and double-skins tubes filled with the proposed sustainable concrete.
- Establish robust finite element models to accurately predict the structural response of the proposed columns.
- Perform a parametric study using the developed finite element models to investigate the effects of controlling design parameters.
Team
External Collaborator
- Chitransh Shrivastava
