Plenary Lecture
The Performances of Concrete as Main Construction Material
Professor Corneliu Bob
University "Politehnica" of Timisoara
Faculty of Construction
Romania
E-mail: cbob@mail.dnttm.ro
Abstract: Although concrete, in form of plain, reinforced, or prestressed concrete, is the leading construction material, it is considered non – ecologic due to the great amount of CO2 emissions arising mainly from the manufacturing of cement. On the other hand concrete has the ability to sequestrate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere due to the effect of carbonation. According to existing researches, concrete structures can recover between 7.6% and 57% of the initial emissions of CO2 during their service life and after demolition. But in the same time, reinforced concrete structures that are subjected to environmental conditions are likely, after a certain period of exposure, to exhibit signs of distress – initial period of reinforcement corrosion process – due to concrete carbonation.
Ultra high performance concretes – UHPC – developed after the year 2000, are characterized by some very spectacular results as: strength to levels exceeding 500 N/mm2; durability; dense structure; control heat absorption and thermal conductivity.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Prof. Corneliu BOB, graduated at the University "Politehnica" of Timisoara – Romania in 1961 and Ph.D. Civil Engineering in 1971 at the same University. In 1990 he became professor of R.C. Structures and Ph.D. – Scientific Coordinator at the Civil Engineering Faculty in Timisoara. From 1996 till 2004 he was the Head of the National Building Research Institute – Timisoara Branch. Professor Bob has also been very active in the Romanian Associations for Civil Engineering: National Association Engineering for Structural Analysis, Bucharest, Romanian Concrete Commission, Romanian Academy – Material Science. Member of IABSE since 1992, Prof. Bob became the member in Permanent Committee, Working Commission WC-8 and Structural Engineering Document Editorial Board. In the last years he has been involved, with good results, in the WSEAS activities.
Prof. Bob has had many and major contributions in the field of Structural Engineering:
(i). He participated as designer at more than 70 structures projects. In the last 15 years his attentions was paid to the design of the RC prefabricated structures: 25 structures have been projected and built up with more than 100000 m2 built surface. An important contribution of Prof. Bob in this field was in a patent concerning the "RC prefabricated structures with rigid nodes".
(ii). A very important field of work was paid to evaluation and rehabilitation of existing buildings. He participated at 75 projects of maintenance and rehabilitation of some important structures affected by seismic actions, gas explosions as well as time environmental factors. A very notable contribution is the "Model of reinforcement corrosion in RC Structures.
(iii). Prof. Bob C. has published many books and papers in Journals and Proceedings of National and International Meetings. The field of interest of works is: rehabilitation of structures, analysis and design of structures, durability of buildings, new special concrete types. Prof. Corneliu BOB played an important role in development of assessing of existing structures and in design of new buildings and he has devoted great energy in promoting the role of students and young engineers as designers and researchers.