Enhanced durability of concrete materials and structures under harsh mining environments

Project Member(s): Li, W.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (Innovation Connections)
Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (Innovation Connections)
Y.A.T. CAPITAL GROUP PTY LTD (YAT Capital Group Pty Ltd)
Y.A.T. CAPITAL GROUP PTY LTD (YAT Capital Group Pty Ltd)

Start year: 2022

Summary: Since constructions in harsh mining environments mostly have an important social function with a high economic impact, fast repair of the cracks is desirable. However, repair costs are large and, in some cases, repair is challenging due to accessibility related issues. This also requires coordinated policies to be defined and adopted for retrofitting/upgrading interventions, in which the costs for non-operating periods and related inconveniences should be adequately considered. Moreover, manual repair can be very labour intensive and have a huge economic impact. It is estimated that the annual cost of repair and rehabilitation of concrete structures under mining environments in Western Australia is drastically increasing. A novel idea to avoid a large part of the manual repair works is to modify the concrete to give it the ability of healing cracks by itself without any human interference. In that case, cracks would be repaired at the moment of their appearance and durability problems related to the ingress of aggressive chemicals through the cracks could be eliminated at the early stage.

FOR Codes: Construction materials, Cement and concrete materials

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.