The research theme covers both plain concrete and reinforced concrete. The theme focuses on material properties of relevance for the manufacture and use of these materials in civil engineering structures such as houses, bridges and tunnels.
The research is focused on achieving an improved and quantitative understanding of the underlying, coupled, multi-scale, chemical and physical relations. The total life cycle is considered from design over manufacturing, execution, operation, maintenance, repair to demolition and re-use; a central topic is the link between nano- and micro-scale materials properties and performance on the macro-scale. With such understanding it becomes possible to tailor materials and methods of manufacturing and execution to a specific structural performance – i.e. to carry out performance based materials design. Examples of topics for the research in concrete include:
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Fresh and hardening cementitious materials, including early age volume changes
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Hydration and pore structure development
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Transport and fixation of matter
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Durability
Key figure: Professor Ole Mejlhede Jensen