Sustainability of Civil Engineering Structures - Durability of concrete

摘要

A 1987 UN conference defined sustainable developments as those that "meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs". What does this mean to the construction industries, which are among the largest consumers of materials and energy and also significant polluters? What are these industries doing to ensure that natural resources are not being depleted or damaged? These requirements pose momentous challenges to the construction industry and point to the needs for improved understanding through research, education, and effective communication amongst the interested parties. For the cement and concrete industries, there is a pressing societal need to address the depletion of raw materials, the deterioration of civil infrastructure, the rising cost of energy, and the accumulation of waste, to name a few of the challenges. Sustainability of Civil Engineering Structures has been an ongoing problem for the construction industry and society on the global scale since the inception of codes and standards. It has taken the industry almost one century to develop codes and standards for designing structures that can sustain extreme loads, during which time it provided little considerations to the ageing and deterioration of the structures. The same argument can be extended to the academic institutions where engineers have been trained in the areas of structural engineering and engineering mechanics but have been given little training on the performance and durability of civil engineering materials. Unfortunately, we cannot afford another century to develop a new generation of codes and standards nor can we afford to continue with the same training principles for our professionals. It is without a doubt an overwhelming problem that the industry must overcome for it to become a sustainable industry and part of a sustainable society.