The construction industry is heavily reliant on production of Portland cement and, in the UK alone, 12 MT of cement is produced per annum. Depending on the specific production processes used, manufacture of 1 kg of Portland cement produces 0.7 kg - 1.0 kg of CO2. Many sources suggest that cement manufacture accounts for up to 5% of the world's CO2 emissions. There is an urgent need for a step change in technology to achieve the radical reductions in carbon emissions necessary to stabilise climate change. Many different approaches can be used to mitigate the effects of cement production. Considerable improvements have been made with kiln efficiency and waste fuels are now commonly used. However, during the production process, calcium carbonate decomposes into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. This calcination reaction causes over half the CO2 emissions from the production process so there is limited scope for improvement. A number of initiatives have examined cement alternatives or replacement materials to reduce the Portland cement requirement of concrete. "Novacem" is an innovation from Imperial College London that made significant progress on a radical alternative to calcium-silica based cements based on magnesium oxide produced from magnesium silicates. Although these developments are encouraging, this process would require entirely new plant and with world production of cement at 2.5 billion tonnes per annum, this technology will take a long time to make a significant impact. Other initiatives such as "Ecocem" in Australia are based on cement replacement materials. A considerable amount of research and development of cement replacement materials has been carried out but replacement levels have specified maximum limits in current standards to ensure concrete behaviour does not differ significantly from Portland cement concrete. Fly ash is a by-product from coal-fired power stations which can be used as a partial cement replacement in concrete. It reacts with calcium hydroxide (produced during hydration of Portland cement) to form stable calcium silicate and aluminate hydrates - the pozzolanic reaction. Fly ash typically replaces 20% - 35% of the cement content within a concrete mix but there are obvious environmental benefits for incorporating higher proportions of cement replacement. However, the pozzolanic reaction between the fly ash and calcium hydroxide occurs quite slowly, which increases setting times and reduces the rate of strength gain of the concrete. This can cause problems associated with surface finishing, delayed removal of formwork etc. which can increase the cost and duration of a construction project. Researchers have consistently found that the higher the proportion of fly ash, the lower the early age strength of the concrete. Therefore, improvement of early age strength of fly ash concrete, particularly when incorporating high volumes of fly ash, warrants investigation. This project has been developed by Coventry University after detailed discussions with key industry figures representing cement, fly ash and admixture suppliers and concrete users. A comprehensive experimental programme will investigate the use of mineral activators to reduce setting times and enhance early age strengths of HVFA concretes. Cement kiln dust is a by-product of the cement manufacture process and its high alkalinity makes it a suitable activator of fly ash. Waste gypsum is also available in abundance and has been shown to increase the rate of strength gain of fly ash concrete. The aim of this study is to incorporate these by-products into HVFA concrete mixes to give comparable early age performance to equivalent Portland cement concretes. The effect of intergrinding the cementitious materials and activators will also be assessed. Also, a range of fly ash sources will be investigated to account for variations in chemical composition of the fly ash, which have been shown to affect concrete strength.

The UK metal casting industry is a key player in the global market. It adds 2.6bn/year to the UK economy, employs directly around 30,000 people and produces 1.14 billion tons of metal castings, of which 37% is for direct export (Source: CMF, UK). It underpins the competitive position of every sector of UK manufacturing across automotive, aerospace, defence, energy and general engineering. However, its 500 companies are mainly SMEs, who are often not in a position to undertake the highest quality R&D necessary for them to remain competitive in global markets. The current EPSRC IMRC portfolio does not cover this important research area nor does it address this clear, compelling business need. We propose to establish IMRC-LiME, a 3-way centre of excellence for solidification research, to fill this distinctive and clear gap in the IMRC portfolio. IMRC-LiME will build on the strong metal casting centres already established at Brunel, Oxford and Birmingham Universities and their internationally leading capabilities and expertise to undertake both fundamental and applied solidification research in close collaborations with key industrial partners across the supply chain. It will support and provide opportunities for the UK metal casting industry and its customers to move up the value chain and to improve their business competitiveness. The main research theme of IMRC-LiME is liquid metal engineering, which is defined as the treatment of liquid metals by either chemical or physical means for the purpose of enhancing heterogeneous nucleation through manipulation of the chemical and physical nature of both endogenous (naturally occurring) and exogenous (externally added) nucleating particles prior to solidification processing. A prime aim of liquid metal engineering is to produce solidified metallic materials with fine and uniform microstructure, uniform composition, minimised casting defects and hence enhanced engineering performance. Our fundamental (platform) research theme will be centred on understanding the nucleation process and developing generic techniques for nucleation control; our user-led research theme will be focused on improving casting quality through liquid metal engineering prior to various casting processes. The initial focus will be mainly on light metals with expansion in the long term to a wide range of structural metals and alloys, to eventually include aluminium, magnesium, titanium, nickel, steel and copper. In the long-term IMRC-LiME will deliver: 1) A nucleation-centred solidification science, that represents a fundamental move away from the traditional growth-focused science of solidification. 2) A portfolio of innovative solidification processing technologies, that are capable of providing high performance metallic materials with little need for solid state deformation processing, representing a paradigm shift from the current solid state deformation based materials processing to a solidification centred materials engineering. 3) An optimised metallurgical industry, in which the demand for metallic materials can be met by an efficient circulation of existing metallic materials through innovative technologies for reuse, remanufacture, direct recycling and chemical conversion with limited additions of primary metal to sustain the circulation loop. This will lead to a substantial conservation of natural resources, a reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions while meeting the demand for metallic materials for economic growth and wealth creation.

The vision of RM4L is that, by 2022 we will have achieved a transformation in construction materials, using the biomimetic approach first adopted in M4L, to create materials that will adapt to their environment, develop immunity to harmful actions, self-diagnose the on-set of deterioration and self-heal when damaged. This innovative research into smart materials will engender a step-change in the value placed on infrastructure materials and provide a much higher level of confidence and reliability in the performance of our infrastructure systems. The ambitious programme of inter-related work is divided into four Research Themes (RTs); RT1: Self-healing of cracks at multiple scales, RT2: Self-healing of time-dependent and cyclic loading damage, RT3: Self-diagnosis and immunisation against physical damage, and RT4: Self-diagnosis and healing of chemical damage. These bring together the four complementary technology areas of self-diagnosis (SD); self-immunisation and self-healing (SH); modelling and tailoring; and scaling up to address a diverse range of applications such as cast in-situ, precast, repair systems, overlays and geotechnical systems. Each application will have a nominated 'champion' to ensure viable solutions are developed. There are multiple inter-relationships between the Themes. The nature of the proposed research will be highly varied and encompass, amongst other things, fundamental physico-chemical actions of healing systems, flaws in potentially viable SH systems; embryonic and high-risk ideas for SH and SD; and underpinning mathematical models and optimisation studies for combined self-diagnosing/self-healing/self-immunisation systems. Industry, including our industrial partners throughout the construction supply chain and those responsible for the provision, management and maintenance of the world's built environment infrastructure will be the main beneficiaries of this project. We will realise our vision by addressing applications that are directly informed by these industrial partners. By working with them across the supply chain and engaging with complementary initiatives such as UKCRIC, we will develop a suite of real life demonstration projects. We will create a network for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in this field which will further enhance the diversity and reach of our existing UK Virtual Centre of Excellence for intelligent, self-healing construction materials. We will further exploit established relationships with the international community to maximise impact and thereby generate new initiatives in a wide range of related research areas, e.g. bioscience (bacteria); chemistry (SH agents); electrochemical science (prophylactics); computational mechanics (tailoring and modelling); material science and engineering (nano-structures, polymer composites); sensors and instrumentation and advanced manufacturing. Our intention is to exploit the momentum in outreach achieved during the M4L project and advocate our work and the wider benefits of EPRSC-funded research through events targeted at the general public and private industry. The academic impact of this research will be facilitated through open-access publications in high-impact journals and by engagement with the wider research community through interdisciplinary networks, conferences, seminars and workshops.