Highlight Seminar Series

Greening a Gray World: Advancing Design of Complex, Lower-Clinker Cement Systems for Sustainable Infrastructure

Kimberly E. Kurtis, PhD, FACI, FACerS

Raymond Allen Jones Chair and Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor (Courtesy Appointment), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship, College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

The ubiquity and the necessity of concrete infrastructure prompts increasing innovation to address the global challenge of meeting societal needs in the most sustainable and economical ways possible. At the same time, cementitious systems are becoming increasingly complex, reflecting expanded use of lower-clinker and alternative binders, as well as increasing use of natural pozzolans and coal combustion residuals – all with variable chemistry and reactivity. As global per-capita concrete use continues to rise, these trends underscore the need for innovation that extends beyond incremental substitution.
This talk highlights recent and ongoing work from my group at Georgia Tech aimed at advancing the design and deployment of complex, lower-clinker cementitious systems through a science-based, integrative approach. By combining advanced characterization, novel synthesis and manufacturing strategies, and data-informed performance modeling, this work develops new understanding that supports both materials innovation and implementation. Illustrative examples include innovative strategies to increase performance of marginal supplementary cementitious materials, synchrotron-enabled insight into chemically and morphologically heterogeneous blended systems, and emerging links between processing, morphology, and long-term performance. These technical advances are considered alongside performance-based specifications and durability models to support a closed-loop materials design framework.

Bio

Kim Kurtis, FACI, FACerS is Jones Chair and Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Materials Science and Engineering. Her group’s innovative work addressing the global challenge of equitably providing infrastructure for all people in the most sustainable and economical ways possible combines advanced characterization methods, novel synthesis and manufacturing approaches, and data science techniques to generate new understanding that improves the design, utilization and performance of cement-based materials, resulting in more than 200 technical publications, and four U.S. patents.

She has held four leadership positions – Chairman of ACI Committee 236: Materials Science of Concrete (2006-2012), Chair of American Ceramic Society’s Cements Division (2008-2009), Steering Committee for ICCC (2019-present), and North American Editor Cement and Concrete Research (2019-present) – central to advancing science-based research on cement-based materials.