Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The long-term vision is to create and characterize construction materials with functionalities to respond to global environmental and societal changes. New infrastructure must include a chemical design embedded in a circular economy considering long-term exposure to environmental conditions. The long-term goal of the research program is to investigate and design specialized construction materials adapted to global changes and investigate the effect of their exposure to the environment. In the short term, to augment the usefulness of buildings and infrastructure, the specific objectives are to: 1) investigate thermoelectric materials for smart energy generation; 2) formulate controlled concrete mixes for robotic and ready-mix operation to design new shapes and to reduce wastage; 3) test the durability of robotic concrete exposed to environmental conditions to determine the conditions for long service life. The material components are selected for thermoelectric composites and for the controlled concrete processes with the high impact to knowledge creation. The design of experiment and machine learning allow to include more types of cement and admixtures, to reflect the fact that the industry is facing a variability in starting materials. The characterization methods are feasible, and are customized to thermoelectric cementitious composite and mixtures to ensure controlled delivery. Thanks to modelling, the experimental results can be extended to wider conditions and the mechanisms studied. Durability tests are needed to validate the material choices. To achieve objective 1 on thermoelectric composite, one PhD and one Master will be trained with the support from one postdoctoral researcher on the modelling. To achieve objective 2 to formulate controlled 3D printing of concrete, two master students and one PhD are required. One Master student will focus on the control of regenerated ready-mix concrete. To achieve the objective 3 on the durability of 3D printed concrete, one PhD and one Master students will pursue the experiments and modelling. Objective 2 and 3 require the support from postdoctoral researchers. The impact of the research program is clearly connected to the need for knowledge among industries, international and local associations regarding construction materials. Cement is a strategic material used worldwide. Thermoelectric cementitious materials are original and the Canadian thermal gradient merit more investigation to define smart applications. 3D concrete printing is having a transformative impact on the construction industry and many international committees are working to validate the materials and technology to make advancement to code and standards. The long-term impacts are to better understand the factors affecting the service life of materials used in building and infrastructure to ensure safety, contribute to the sustainable development goals, and identify more advanced materials with promising applications.