The sustainability of infrastructure projects is becoming increasingly important issue in engineering practice. This means that in the future the construction materials will be selected on the basis of the contribution they can make to reach sustainability requirements. Geopolymers are materials based on by-products from industries. By using geopolymer concrete technology it is possible to reduce our waste and to produce concrete in the environmental-friendly way. An 80% or greater reduction of greenhouse gases compared with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) can be achieved through geopolymer technology. However, there are limited practical applications and experience. For a broad and large scale industrial application of geopolymer concrete, challenges still exist in the technological and engineering aspects. The main goal of GeoCon Bridge project was to develop a geopolymer concrete mixture and to upscale it to structural application. The outputs of projects provide input for development of recommendations for structural design of geopolymer based reinforced concrete elements. Through a combination of laboratory experiments on material and structural elements, structural design and finite element simulations, and based on previous experience with OPC concrete, knowledge generated in this project provides an important step towards a “cement free” construction. The project was performed jointly by three team members: Microlab and Group of Concrete Structures from Technical University of Delft and Technical University of Eindhoven.@en

As an important aspect in the asset management of the existing concrete bridges, a proper evaluation of the conditions of the concrete, especially the width and the distribution of cracks in the concrete structure turns out to be rather important. Conventional approaches usually require onsite investigations and are labour intensive. On the other hand, it has been recognized since long time that the elastic wave transfer properties through solid can reflect the change of properties inside the material. Smart Aggregate (SA) is a newly developed ultrasonic sensor based on this effect. Casted into the target structures, these sensors make it possible to detect the change of ultrasonic wave transfer properties and evaluate the damages of the structures from the inside. This paper presents a structure condition assessment strategy by making use of SA grid through a lab test on a scaled specimen.@en