Preface

Title: Preface
Author(s): C. Miao, W. Sun, K. van Breugel
Paper category : conference
Book title: International Conference on Microstructure Related Durability of Cementitious Composites
Editor(s): W. Sun, K. van Breugel, C. Miao, G. Ye and H. Chen
Print-ISBN: 978-2-35158-065-3
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-084-4
Publisher: RILEM Publications
Publication year: 2008
Pages: XXI - XXI
Total Pages: 1
Language: English

Abstract: What can be said today about China’s economy can also be said about people’s interest in durability: it is booming! In more general terms it can even be stated that booming economies generate people’s interest in durability issues. Economic growth goes along with an increasing use of energy and raw materials and, as a consequence of this, a big impact on the environment. For the building industry this means that all parties involved in building sector have to think about possibilities to mitigate the impact of building activities on the environment.

Against the background of this wider perspective the booming interest for durability is no surprise anymore. But there are more reasons why durability scores high today. The complexity of the durability issue constitutes a big challenge for both engineers and scientists. Engineers have to design concrete structures with a required service life of 100 to 200 years. They need reliable tools for service life predictions for structures made with new types of concrete. They must also to be able to ensure a long maintenance free period in order to keep the costs for maintenance and repair as low as possible.
Predicting the long-term performance of concrete structures under a variety of exposure conditions requires in depth knowledge of the material. New and more accurate experimental techniques became available for investigating cement paste and concrete in subsequence stage of their lifetime, and this over a range of length scales. At the same time the still growing computation power of modern computers has made it possible to develop advanced numerical models for simulating relevant processes and mechanisms which affect the durability and performance of concrete structures. All these aspects promote the interest of all parties in the building sector in durability issues.

Today durability issues are studied world wide. Overlap of individual studies is unavoidable. Still it is important to realize that also resources for fundamental research are limited. Developing platforms for exchange of research views and research results is, therefore, extremely important. Even more important is to bring people together who study the problems and who are the owners of the problems and are waiting for appropriate solutions. It was for these reasons that the Materials Department of South East University of Nanjing and the section of Materials & Environment of Delft University of Technology decided to organize the First International Conference on Microstructure Related Durability of Cementitious Composites. The response on the call for papers - about 160 contributions from 25 countries - demonstrates the relevance of the topic.

Much of the preparatory work for this Sino-Dutch initiative has been done by staff members of the Building Material Research Institute of Architectural Academy of Jiang Province and by Dr. H.S. Chen at the Chinese side and by Dr. Guang Ye at the Dutch side. The efforts and enthusiasm of all these people are very much appreciated. This conference was organized under the umbrella of RILEM.
The organizers would like to express their appreciation to RILEM for adopting this conference. On behalf of the Organizing Committee we would finally like to thank all the keynote speakers, authors and delegates for their there collaboration and presence in this conference.

Online publication: 2009-06-09
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00