Concrete under fire

About the Project

Concrete remains one of the mostly widely used materials in the world and fundamental to society. However, it is also a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions representing 8% of global CO2 production. Extensive research work is ongoing to develop alternative and more sustainable cement-like materials for use in concrete with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint while maintaining the benefits of strength, durability and versatility.

However, under some circumstances, concretes can be exposed to extreme loading conditions including very high temperatures, either through their application (e.g. nuclear power plant structures) or accident (e.g. structures in fire). Understanding the behaviour of these materials under such conditions is extremely important for the design of structures and infrastructure, where the ability to demonstrate safe performance can be a limiting factor in the construction process.

Concrete is a complex, multi-phase, multi-scale porous material and upon exposure to high temperatures the flow of heat and moisture lead to complex physical and chemical interactions and interdependencies of the various solid, fluid and gas phases present within it that ultimately affect its mechanical behaviour. To understand the material behaviour and therefore the mechanical and structural behaviour, these must be understood and taken into account.

This project will use numerical and/or experimental techniques to investigate the behaviour of such materials at multiple scales in order to provide insight into their performance under high temperature applications and to develop recommendations both for the design of new materials and for the design of structures using these materials.

Applications accepted all year round

Self-Funded PhD Students Only