Efficient Design of Low Carbon, Low Strength Concrete: Industry Perspective

LSC (low-strength concrete), which is the majority of everyday concrete used, is relatively inefficient in terms of carbon emissions.Research has shown that evaluating the concrete mix design, reducing the amount of cement used, and replacing it with SCMs (supplementary cementitious materials) are more effective than adding superplasticisers and chemical additions.The current research has dealt with the design of LSC by a review method.According to the literature review on the concrete mix and its carbon emissions, 113 mix designs with different properties and applications were collected from real industry data, and several data analysis techniques were used to analyse their performance.Examining the data showed that, in general, the use of LSC is inefficient compared to HSC (high-strength concrete).However, several strategies were found that can solve this inefficiency.The results show that the additive cement materials in the binary/ternary combination have a critical effect on reducing the embodied carbon of the composite.Accordingly, it is recommended that the construction industry use the composition of cementitious materials as a key factor in the design of their concretes.The need for more research is felt to identify and critically evaluate other factors that can improve the performance of these concretes.