Sustainable concrete with high volume GGBFS to build Masdar City in the UAE

Abstract

Masdar City (MC) is leading the Middle East in the development of energy and resource efficient low-carbon construction in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One of its major goals is to develop and specify materials and processes that will help reducing its environmental footprint through resource and energy conservation, as well as renewable energy generation. In 2010 MC announced on its website a prized-competition for the best proposal of “Sustainable Concrete” and “Lowest Carbon Footprint” to build MC with a total of two million cubic meter of concrete on 4 years period. This paper presents the experimental test results of 13 types of concrete mixes made with high volume of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) cement with 50%, 60%, 70% and 80% replacement of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) to reduce the carbon emissions. A fly ash-blended mix made with 30% fly ash was also tested. The paper provides more information on the mix design parameter, full justification of CO2 footprint, and cost reduction for each concrete type. The hardened and plastic properties and durability test parameters for each mix are presented. The results show that the slag concrete mixes significantly reduce the carbon footprint and meet the requirements of MC. An economical mix with 80% GGBFS and 20% OPC was nominated for use in the future construction of MC with 154kg/m3 carbon foot print.