Concrete Materials Engineering Chair

The Concrete Materials Engineering Chair (IdB) was set up in 2014 at the instigation of the cement industry to facilitate cross-cutting thinking by industry and academia in construction and civil engineering.

Purpose and guidelines

• To position ESTP as a stakeholder in and leading partner of the cement industry.
• To develop expertise in the properties of new concretes and their applications by establishing a new teaching and research programme.

Objectives

• Understanding and monitoring new developments new materials, new construction techniques and new activities around concrete.
• Preparing innovative research and training programmes for the sector.
• Driving progress in academic and applied research.
• Creating innovation around concrete material.

Teaching 

In the complex context of environmental, digital and societal transitions, Chair’s teaching projects aim to make students aware of the benefits brought by performancial approach, multi-criteria analysis, global assessment, and to support them in putting them in practice.

For example, the IdB XD project is based on project-based learning with real-life case studies. In 2019, as part of this framework, ESTP students worked on complete projects for the intelligent and sustainable renovation of iconic concrete buildings in the city of Le Havre (🎬 👇). 

Another example is the ACV Digital Learning program (🎬 👇), which trains students in multi-criteria approaches and, more specifically, in the life cycle assessment (LCA) method applied at different scales, from the element to the structure.

Research 

The research projects of the Chair are aligned with the Research Institute  objectives and have the common goal of reducing the environmental impact of concrete. 

The actions are divided into three areas:

• Resource valorization, or how to enhance natural resources by incorporating natural fibers into concrete, how to valorize deconstruction materials, and also how to optimize activation methods for materials to reduce energy consumption.
• Innovative construction processes and systems, or how to work at the scale of processes or systems to reduce the environmental impact of concrete, notably in the cases of 3D printing and connected/smart concrete.
• Overall performance approach, to comprehensively analyze the performance of materials and systems and to optimize the overall performance of concrete.
   

Partners

VICAT, École Française du Béton, France Ciment, CIMbéton, Fondation ESTP

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FOR MORE INFORMATIONS, PLEASE CONTACT :

Céline FLORENCE | Head of the Concrete Engineering Chair
Email : cflorence@estp.fr

Johan COLIN | Head of the Concrete Engineering Laboratory
Email : jcolin@estp.fr

Laure REGNAUD | Head of EFB Foundation 
Email : l.regnaud@efbeton.com