Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - NMP - LORCENIS

H2020 LEIT NMP

The Horizon 2020 project ‘LORCENIS: Long Lasting Reinforced Concrete for Energy Infrastructure under Severe Operating Conditions’ is a European research project with the main aim to provide admixtures and systems for reinforced concrete, which enable the material to diagnose and repair itself. 

The consortium consists of partners from eight European countries; three universities (NTUA, UAVR and UGent), six research institutes (SINTEF, HZG, CBI, CSIC, FAB and CIDET), two SMEs (SMT and CHEMS) and five industrial companies (ACCION, KVAER, SIKA, DYCK and VATT). The partners' core competence cover the whole value chain from fundamental material research (theoretical modelling and material development) to industrial optimization, manufacturing and testing of concrete energy infrastructures under severe and realistic operating conditions. The research project is coordinated by Dr. Christian Simon from the Norwegian research institute SINTEF and will run from middle 2016 until middle 2020.

Objectives

The main goal of the LORCENIS project is to develop long-lasting reinforced concrete for energy infrastructures with lifetime extended up to a 100% under extreme operating conditions. The concept is based on an optimal combination of novel technologies involving customized methodologies for cost-efficient operation. Four scenarios of severe operating conditions are considered:

  1. Concrete infrastructure in deep sea, arctic and subarctic zones: offshore windmills, gravity based structures, bridge piles and harbours
  2. Concrete and mortar under mechanical fatigue in offshore windmills and sea structures
  3. Concrete structures in concentrated solar power plants exposed to high temperature thermal fatigue
  4. Concrete cooling towers subjected to acid attack

The goal will be realized through the development of multifunctional strategies integrated in concrete formulations and advanced stable bulk concretes from optimized binder technologies. A multi-scale show case will be realized towards service-life prediction of reinforced concretes in extreme environments to link several model approaches and launch innovation for new software tools.

The durability of sustainable advanced reinforced concrete structures developed will be proven and validated within LORCENIS under severe operating conditions based on the TRL scale, starting from a proof of concept to technology validation.

LORCENIS will bring innovative materials and new methods closer to the marked and will permit the establishment of energy infrastructures in areas with harsh climate and environmental conditions at acceptable costs.

Role of Ghent University

To be completed.

 

WEBSITE: not yet available

Contact

Prof. Nele De Belie
Department of Structural Engineering
Phone number: +32 9 264 55 22
E-mail: