The "Digital Prize of the Vogel Foundation Dr. Eckernkamp" has now been awarded to a team led by Prof. Dr. Christian Fischer and PhD student Hannah Drenkard from the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS). The team is researching the resistance of concrete to chlorides from de-icing salts or seawater. Among other things, Prof. Dr. Christian Fischer and Hannah Drenkard (Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering in the Laboratory for Materials in Civil Engineering) are looking into the question of how new cements can be designed.
The problem with existing cements is that the steel embedded in them can rust. According to the FHWS, the reason for this is so-called chlorides. These can lead to the natural corrosion protection of the concrete being destroyed and the steel in the concrete starting to rust. The FHWS has now developed a method with which, for example, the penetration of de-icing salts, which is very slow in reality, can be viewed in a rapid procedure.
"The test methods for proving durability, which have so far been mostly analog and manual, are to be made more reliable and faster by means of digital testing and evaluation methods. For example, concretes based on new cements can be tested more quickly for their resistance to harmful chlorides from de-icing salts," explains Prof. Dr. Christian Fischer. The aim of the research is also to find out how concrete can be made more durable and how, as a result, CO2 emissions generated during production can be reduced.
Source and further information: idw-online.de
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