Rethinking coastal defence and Green-energy Service infrastructures through enhanced-durability high-performance cement-based materials Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) Alva Peled Structural Engineering Department Oren Regev Chemical Engineering Department
Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) Founded in 1969 by government decision, in the vision of David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. In the desert Beer Sheva
Ben Gurion University of the Negev Close to 20,000 students on campuses in Beer-Sheva, Eilat and Sede Boqer #1 choice of Israeli undergraduate students 30-35% of student body in advanced degree programs 50% from Center & North of the country with a growing international student body 5
Pinchas Sapir Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 6 Faculties @ BGU Faculty of Natural Sciences Faculty of Engineering Sciences Faculty of Health Sciences Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
Faculty of Engineering Sciences The largest of the University's five faculties, includes: 13 departments and units 170 faculty members and research workers ~ 5,500 students - toward bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees.
2 PI s Alva Peled A full professor in the Department of Structural Engineering Research focus includes: Cement-based materials, cementitious composite materials, ultra-high performance concrete and nanofillers in cementitious materials. Oren Regev (www.bgu.ac.il/~oregev) A full professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering Research focus includes: Nanocomposites polymer and cement-based with wide variety of nanofillers such as nanotubes and graphene. Production, exfoliation and dispersion of the nanofillers in various media to achieve enhanced mechanical and transport properties.
Main background of resesrch groups Nano-technology Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) Microstructural and chemical analysis in composite materials Sustainability developments Durability of cemetitious materials
BGU main objectives Development and design of innovative cement-based composite materials including the use of textiles and nano-technology approaches. Nano-particles dispersion. Alternative reinforcements other than steel textile made of polymer and carbon fibres. Mechanical testing, microstructural and chemical analysis. Controlled micro-cracking measured by non-distractive methods (acoustic emission) before and during loading at different aging and environmental conditions.
BGU Tasks leaders WP4 - Task 4.4 - Adaptation of UHDC to different application technologies (with UPV, PoliMi, TUD) WP5 - Task 5.1 - Feedback of durability performance and UHDCs design (with PoliMi, UPV, CSIC, TUD
WP4 main concept @ BGU (in close collaboration with UPV, PoliMi, TUD) Formulating UHDC (fine grain concrete)- Integration of NP and Textile Integrating carbon-based fillers : e.g., carbon nanotubes (CNT) and/or graphene (GNP), graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite Total concentration CNT/GNP ratio Textile reinforcement carbon fabrics Matrix-fabric interface impregnation textile with fillers Combination of nanocomposite and impregnated textile
WP4 - Concept and Development of UHDC Main concept - NP+TRC 11
WP5 main concept @ BGU (in close collaboration with PoliMi, UPV, CSIC, TUD) Durability performance and UHDCs design Focused on corrosion of reinforcements and UHDC mix-designs under XA (chem. attack) conditions: Accelerated aging, acid attack tests, including volume changes, mass scaling, acid content, and leaching.
BGU available equipment BGU laboratories include: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) equipped with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and cryo-tem facilities (imaging of liquids) Raman spectroscopy of the graphene powder - used for differentiation between single-layer to few-layers-graphene (FLG) and graphite and measurement of defect density. Mechanical properties testing: closed loop uniaxial INSTRON (100 kn) and compression machine (2000 kn). Isothermal calorimeter (TAM Air) - chemical reaction of cementitious materials Acoustic emission (AE) - nondestructive test method to detect fracture processes. Results are achieved through detection, location and characterization of active AE sources within concrete such as micro- and macro-crack.
Testing @ BGU Non-destructive acoustic emission testing prior and during loading to evaluate self-healing performance, durability and aging
Non-destructive acoustic emission testing Multiple Cracking Pull-Out First Crack
Participation in other WPs BGU will also participate in: WP2 :Project management WP8: Validation and proof of concepts in real-site durability conditions, as far as the verification of the UHDC application technologies and durability quantification is concerned through comparison with real monitored pilot performance. WP9: Dissemination and exploitation of results