Global warming potential-based life cycle assessment and optimization of the compressive strength of fly ash-silica fume concrete; environmental impact consideration

Abstract

In this research study, extensive literature searches on the compressive strength of concrete produced from the addition of fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) as extra constituents to the conventional concrete mixes, which gave rise to 330 mix points of concrete database. Due to the worrisome environmental impact of concrete production and usage in concrete activities, it has been pertinent to conduct the life cycle impact assessment of this procedure. Secondly, due to the over dependence of concrete production experts on laboratory exercise, there is also an urgent need to propose equations that reduce this dependence, that can be used in design, construction and performance evaluation of concrete infrastructure, hence the multi-objective nature of this research work. The results of the global warming potential (GWP) based on cement dosage show that Portland cement contributes about 90% of the total score. This is followed by the use of coarse aggregate contributing 6%, superplasticizer, 3% and fine aggregates, 2%. These show the functions of CO2 emissions and other greenhouses gas emissions in the entire system. Also, the result of the terrestrial acidification potential (TAP) for the concrete mixes in this study show that the lowest cement mix “C340-FAg658-FA0-SF15ˮ has a human toxicity, both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic that showed an added impact of about 14 kg of 1, 4 equivalents of dichlorobenzene (DCB eq.). This result is 428% less impact than other studies found in the literature that used FA. Finally, it was found that the addition of FA and SF in concrete has a lowering effect on the environmental impact indicators due to reduced cement dosage. Furthermore, the results of the model predictions show that ANN with a performance index of 0.986 (4.8%) showed decisive superiority to predict the compressive strength of the FA-SF concrete over EPR, 0.951 (8.7%), GP, 0.94 (9.5%) and GEP, 0.93 (10%).