Developing Novel Alternative Cementitious Materials for Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure

The customary utilization of ordinary portland cement (OPC) concrete, a high-CO2 material with durability drawbacks, limits the creation of sustainable buildings as well as resilient infrastructure. This ubiquitous building material accounts for 4%-6% of global CO2 emissions with about 1.6 billion tons of OPC produced every year. Moreover, severe durability issues have yielded estimates of $1.3 trillion to fix the premature degradation of the material in various applications. This presentation will highlight global construction challenges and demonstrate innovation opportunities in the advancement of novel alternative cementitious materials. These innovation opportunities are sought by combining both cement chemistry and materials science fundamentals with mathematical based experimental approaches. This unique approach will be exemplified by the latest studies on the durability of alkali-activated cements (AACs) – promising low-CO2 and durable building materials. Lastly, the vision and mission of the Responsive and Adaptive Infrastructure Materials (Re-AIM) laboratory will be introduced. With this vision and mission, the scientific findings of the laboratory will ‘re-aim’ our current paradigm (which prioritizes the use of OPC concrete) and encourage the use of responsive novel building materials capable of adapting to ubiquitous degradation forces. Bio Juan Pablo Gevaudan, Ph.D., EIT, is a cement chemist with expertise in the development and durability of both conventional and alternative cementitious materials. He received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, after completing a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the recipient of more than 12 honors and awards as well as a prestigious 2019-2021 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. His doctorate research focused on the chemical durability of novel construction materials, namely alkali-activated cements. In this field, he has pioneered theoretical concepts related to the chemical degradation of these novel materials by utilizing an innovative approach combining both material science and cement chemistry fundamentals. As a result, he has been awarded a total of $586,165 in internal and external funding to investigate various durability aspects of alkali-activated materials. He is also an active member of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), participating in three technical committees, as well as the American Ceramics Society (ACerS) cements division. He has mentored and supervised a total of six students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in four different disciplines (i.e., ArchE, CE, ChE, Arc).