Overseas concrete expert, Professor Pierre-Claude Aitcin, will review a range of outstanding construction projects from around the world to demonstrate how high performance concrete can contribute to the construction of efficient, economical and sustainable structures.
The selected examples include:
- The Confederation Bridge in Canada for which a durability monitoring programme has been in place for 10 years. The resistance to ice abrasion in the tidal zone was the critical design criteria from a durability point of view. After 10 years of service the life cycle of this part of the bridge can be estimated to 300 years, 3 times the life cycle asked for by the Canadian Government that will “inherit” the bridge for $1, 25 years from now. The 190m-long prefabricated girders were 300 tonnes heavier than the Eiffel tower!
- The viaduct of Millau in France build under the supervision of Sir Norman Foster. The highest concrete pile was built with 60 MPa concrete and is as high as the Eiffel Tower.
- The Burj Kalifat Tower in Dubaï where 60 Mpa concrete was pumped up to 610 m (2 times the height of the Eiffel Tower). The construction of the last 218 m in steel was so painful and inefficient due to logistic problems that Samsung of Korea asked that the next 1200 m high building (4 times the high of the Eiffel Tower) that will be built in Djeddah in Saudi Arabia will be designed entirely based on using 80 MPa concrete.
- The construction of the Osaka liquefied gas terminal where 60 MPa self-compacting concrete resulted in the construction of a liquefied gas tank containing 2 times more gas per square meter of the artificial island that it is built on. It was constructed three times faster than the construction of a more classical 30-MPa reinforced concrete gas tank.
- The 13 years monitoring programme of the Passerelle of Sherbrooke that shows that resonance frequencies of this first reactive powder concrete structure (200 MPa) have not changed since its initial construction.
Sponsored by Golden Bay Cement, and co-ordinated by the SESOC regional groups, the dates, times and venues for the presentation are as follows:
Auckland, Monday 1 August 2011
Programme 5.30pm – 6.00pm
6.00pm – 7.00pm Pierre-Claude Aitcin
Venue School of Engineering, Auckland University (room 1.439)
Street Level Foyer, Symonds Street, Auckland
RSVP Rick Henry
Christchurch, Tuesday 2 August 2011
Programme 5.30pm – 6.00pm
6.00pm – 7.00pm Pierre-Claude Aitcin
Venue Civil Engineering Department, Meeting Room E5
University of Canterbury, Christchurch
RSVP Allan Scott
Wellington, Thursday 4 August 2011
Programme 5.30pm – 6.00pm
6.00pm – 7.00pm Pierre-Claude Aitcin
Venue Lecture Theatre LT1, School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington
139 Vivian Street, Wellington
RSVP Carl Ashby