DARE2C project [1] is to develop a more environmental-friendly concrete and use aluminium as reinforcement materials, instead of steel. In this new concrete, more than 55% of the cement is replaced with less CO2 intensive supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). The use of this SCMs can greatly reduce the emission of CO2 during the cement production, and also provides an alkaline environment for a good compatibility with Al alloys[2]. Moreover, as reinforcement, the aluminium, which has favourable anti-corrosive performance in most conditions, would help to expand the lifespan of the reinforcement and reduce the cover layer thickness. Therefore, the combination of Al and the new concrete offers a perspective of both lightweight and green production.

However, compared to steel, the inferior mechanical properties of aluminium, including lower Young’s Modulus and tensile strength, could be problematic to limit its application. Luckily, the good formality of aluminium alloys makes it possible to shape the reinforcement with different profiles, which may compensate the inferior strength sacrifice by structural design.

In this study, two types of aluminium reinforcement are used: net structure and round bars. FE simulation was conducted to understand the behaviour of aluminium as the reinforcement in the concrete during four-point bending test. Comparison is made between the aluminium and traditional steels. With the concrete being filled within the net structure, the deformation of concrete and aluminium would affect each other. Even though with lower strength for aluminium, the reinforcement concrete structure elaborates similar structural stiffness with steel reinforcement, which indicates the potential of using aluminium as reinforcement in the new concrete.

1. Justnes, H., Durable Aluminium Reinforced Environmentally-friendly Concrete Construction–DARE2C. 2017.

2. Runningen, I., et al., In Situ Measurements of the Chemical Stability of a Cast Aluminum Alloy Embedded in a Cement Paste with a High Amount of Supplementary Cementitious Material. Metals, 2021. 11(9).