Advanced Manufacturing of Sustainable Cement and Cementitious Materials

Description:
Concrete is the mostly heavily used manmade material and the major construction material for civil, defense, and energy infrastructure. Concrete materials are intrinsically brittle, and thus susceptible to deterioration and fracture under various mechanical and environmental loading conditions. The material brittleness compromises structural durability and safety, leading to increased life cycle environmental, economic and social impacts. Furthermore, the manufacture of Portland cement – the main ingredient of structural concrete – presently accounts for roughly 5% of global energy usage and 8% of CO2 emissions. The cement manufacturing process has not changed substantially over the past 140 years and requires temperatures above 1400 degree Celsius with heat provided by the combustion of fossil fuels. The CO2 emission stems from both fossil fuel combustion and decomposition of limestone in the kiln. The cement industry is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. To address these challenges, this presentation describes our work on advanced manufacturing of cement with much reduced temperature and CO2 emissions, as well as advanced manufacturing of cementitious materials (i.e., concrete) that feature ultra-high ductility and damage tolerance to further reduce life cycle energy usage and CO2 emissions of the built infrastructure systems.

Speaker: Mo Li - University of California, Irvine
Dr. Mo Li is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She directs the AM3 Lab - Advanced Multifunctional Materials, Structures and Manufacturing Research Lab at UCI. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prof. Li's research focuses on novel infrastructure materials and their interfaces with advanced manufacturing, structural engineering, and damage sensing, with the goal of improving infrastructure service life, energy efficiency and structural resilience. Her research areas also include infrastructure sustainability, cement decarbonization, and concrete additive manufacturing and structural designs.