Assessing the Seismic Performance of "Green Concrete" Interior Beam-Column Joints

Abstract

Concrete is amongst the most important resources of humankind, reputedly second only to water in terms of mass used each year. However, cement production is a significant source of carbon dioxide, with each tonne of Portland cement produced releasing approximately one tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It has been shown that cement production accounts for approximately 7% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. As society becomes increasingly environmentally aware it is important that the cement and concrete industry makes a significant effort to reduce production of “greenhouse” gases, including carbon dioxide. One method for reducing carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the production of concrete is to replace Portland cement based binders with inorganic polymers, a family of compounds composed of aluminium and silicon based materials polymerised using an alkaline solution and a chemical activator. Before it is possible to adopt inorganic polymer based concrete for structural purposes it is essential to show that structures designed using existing methods will perform as expected if constructed using inorganic polymer concrete. This paper describes the reversed cyclic testing of three beam-column joint subassemblies made of an inorganic polymer based concrete developed by Siloxo, plus the testing of a control unit made of ordinary (Portland cement) concrete. These tests are believed to be the first investigation of the seismic performance of structural elements made from inorganic polymer concrete.