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TRR 280:  Design Strategies for Material-Minimised Carbon Reinforced Concrete Structures—Principles of a New Approach to Construction

Subject Area Construction Engineering and Architecture
Biology
Chemistry
Geosciences
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Materials Science and Engineering
Mathematics
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Term since 2020
Website Homepage
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417002380
 
Carbon-reinforced concrete (CRC) is a novel, rapidly evolving material poised to revolutionize civil engineering applications. It consists of two high-performance constituents: high-strength carbon reinforcement and eco-friendly concrete. While mere material substitution already yields a reduction in resource consumption, it barely taps into the vast potential of CRC. The last two decades of extensive research and initial findings of TRR 280 have demonstrated the potential of CRC to meet the performance and sustainability requirements significantly better than conventional materials. However, it also becomes evident that realizing this potential requires synergizing the high-performance characteristics of its components with meticulously designed structural geometries. Since flat structural members, especially slabs, constitute about 50–60 % of the concrete mass in standard buildings, our focus is on investigating solutions for these commonly used members with the goal to induce maximum reduction of environmental impact of the building sector while meeting serviceability, durability, and safety requirements. Solutions meeting these requirements will be sought along three major design principles: (i) systems based on intersecting shell substructures, (ii) modular systems of semi-finished folded elements, and (iii) customizable graded web-flange systems. This complex design vocabulary will be fused in a machine-learning structure generator, underpinned by algebraic analysis, and inspired by mechanisms derived from botany. The manufacturing of thin-walled geometries will integrate concrete extrusion, 3D concrete printing and folding techniques. The components of CRC will be investigated in terms of spatially shaped 3D textiles, tessellated 4D textiles, interphase structuring according to biological principles, and low to neutral CO2 binders. Central to TRR 280 is resource efficiency as the primary requirement for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental impact of CRC structures will be further reduced by their extended service life, resulting from their corrosion resistance, and circularity principles. In parallel, social aspects will be integrated into holistic assessment approaches of the design solutions. The research methodology will build upon the groundwork of the first period in five research areas: A: Inspiration, drawn from machine-learning and simulation methods, botany and mathematical patterns; B: Components, developing materials that meet the requirements on function, sustainability, and manufacturing; C: Structural elements, pursuing the described design principles and advancing their characterization and modeling methods; D: Manufacturing, promoting the potential of CRC for industrialization and circularity; E: Sustainability, developing methods for holistic life-cycle assessment and material recyclability. The work of our TRR represents a significant step towards climate-neutral, resource-efficient construction.
DFG Programme CRC/Transregios

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Applicant Institution Technische Universität Dresden
Spokespersons Professor Dr.-Ing. Manfred Curbach, until 6/2024; Professor Dr.-Ing. Steffen Marx, since 7/2024
 
 

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