Recent Advances In Durability Improvement And Low Carbon Strategy Of Engineering Materials And Structures

Global warming, caused by a significant increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2, has become a concern all over the world. The whole process carbon emissions of the civil engineering industry account for nearly 40% of global energy and process-related CO2 emissions, more than half of which come from the process of producing, using, constructing and dismantling in civil engineering materials and structures, resulting in the embodied carbon emissions. With the acceleration of global warming, warmer and uncertain climates will make engineering materials and structures subject to more severe environmental conditions. A series of durability issues will occur more frequently, such as the significant variations of humidity in air, the chloride-induced corrosion caused by the severe chloride ingress, concrete cracking caused by the expansion of rusts, and more severe carbonation of concrete structures due to the increase in CO2 concentration. The adoption of positive measures to address climate change has become a global consensus, as global warming has led to serious threats and challenges to the survival and development of humankind.