The PhD is in the field “Rheology of fresh concrete”. Production, technical quality and environmental footprint of concrete structures depend to a large extent on proportions and flow of fresh concrete. Being the worlds most consumed structural material, the properties of fresh concrete are therefore very important. At NTNU a two-phase proportioning- and rheology model for optimized particle packing and suspending phase rheology has been developed for proportioning of concrete with predictable fresh and hardened properties. Lately the model was further developed with a micro-proportioning approach for enhanced rheology prediction based on constituent properties of fines from manufactured aggregates and also new types of cement and Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCM).

TOC for measuring copolymer adsorption and 3D printer in NTNU's concrete lab

The rheology studies target 3D-printing. The experimental work will mainly be carried out at the concrete laboratories of NTNU. The experiments will include selected particle characteristics, admixture-surface interactions – mainly adsorption of copolymer, rheology, and printability.

The modelling will mainly be carried out at DTU during a 1-year research stay. It includes artificial intelligence and computational fluid dynamics to analyze experiments, model rheology at the material scale and simulate concrete printability at the production-/structural scale.

Financing: NTNU and Research Council of Norway