What is Green Concrete ? Advantages and Disadvantages

Green concrete or Eco Concrete is the same as normal concrete, but it’s made from waste material or eco-friendly material

Green concrete is very cheap to produce because for making we use waste products such as a partial substitute for cement, aggregates. The use of concrete in the construction industry is growing at a faster rate and with the development of urban society and its need boosts demand for construction materials.

The Cement and aggregates are the main constituents of concrete and there continuous mining reduced the source of availability. This scenario created the problem of a shortage of construction materials in recent times. To fulfill the shortage, there is a need to find a replacement to some extent.

Nowadays, the construction industry looking for alternative material and the solution is known as “Green Concrete”.

Green concrete is a new type of concrete in the field of the sustainable construction industry. It is a revolutionary concept of making concrete in the construction industry. Green concrete was first developed by Dr. WG. in Denmark in the year 1998.

Use of Green Concrete:

 To Decrease the Demand for Conventional Material:

As discussed above the construction industry growth is to fast in recent year and consumption of concrete is also increased to a large extent. Because of this and limited source of mining leading to a shortage of conventional construction material like cement, aggregate. Therefore to reduce the demand for regular construction material the green concrete is a better alternative.

To Reduce Co2 Emission:

In conventional concrete, we use a material whose production process involves the emission of a large amount of co2 in the environment. Whereas green concrete uses waste eco-friendly material which emits too low co2 in the environment.

To Recycle and Reuse the Materials:

As construction of any structure involve a huge amount of materials and also it produces a large amount of construction waste also. This waste never utilized for any other work. So, the green concrete has the idea to recycle and reuse this waste material for making concrete.

Application of Green Concrete:

1. It is used in the construction of bridges
2. It is widely used in the building Construction
3. It is used in the construction of Column
4. It can be used in the Road Construction

Advantages:

1. There is no need to change the manufacturing process of concrete for green concrete.
2. It is made from waste and recycled materials like fly ash, GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag, artificial aggregates, etc. in the concrete.
3. It decreases CO2 emission and helps in reducing the environmental pollution.
4. It has good thermal and acid resistance.
5. It solves the problem of recycling and disposal space required for industry waste material as it is made from residue waste material.
6. It is most suitable for mass concrete work as it produces less heat of hydration.
7. Green concrete compressive and split tensile strength is better with some materials compared to conventional concrete.
8. It contributes to reducing the consumption of cement overall.
9. It is economical compared to conventional concrete.
10. It offers better workability than conventional concrete.

Green Concrete Disadvantages:

1. Structures made with some types of green concrete have comparatively less Life than structures with conventional concrete.
2. Compressive strength may vary with the change of green materials.
3. Water absorption is high.
4. Its Shrinkage and creep properties are high compared to conventional concrete.
5. Flexural strength is less in green concrete

Expert Verdict or Opinion:

1. There is significant scope in the use of waste materials to produce green concrete.
2. Replacing regular concrete material with the waste materials and by-products gives an opportunity to manufacture economical and environment-friendly concrete.
3. Partial replacement of concrete materials like cement and aggregate with waste material and admixtures shows better compressive and tensile strength, improved sulphate resistance, decreased permeability and improved workability.
4. But, the Construction industry required faster construction and quick availability of materials. Making green concrete material availability is a big problem