SynerCrete’23

Understanding the complex behaviour of cement-based materials (CBM) and concrete structures during their entire lifecycle demands that researchers transcend approaches based on a single discipline. Interdisciplinary work is known, however, to bring important challenges in the view of the need to combine approaches and methods that are very distinct by nature, as well as enabling adequate communication between scientific fields with different (sometimes conflicting) terminologies, different perspectives and different collaboration practices/dynamics.

Following the legacy of COST Action TU1404, which initiated the SynerCrete conference series in 2018, the 2023 Edition aimed to continue the pursuit of bringing together relevant stakeholders in order to synergize their expertise by accelerating transfer of knowledge and promoting international and inter-speciality exchange of information, creating avenues for new developments towards more robust and sustainable solutions for cement-based materials and concrete structures. COST Action TU1404 “Towards the next generation of standards for service life of cement-based materials and structures” and associated RILEM TCs 287-CCS and 254-CMS have brought about significant interdisciplinary collaboration, mostly between material scientists and structural engineers, with involvement of several other disciplines. Bridging between experts in experimental work and experts in numerical simulation has also been a strong focus.

SynerCrete series goal is to support these established collaborations at the same time being open to all interested members of the scientific/practising community to encourage further development of the network. The focus of the conference series is to communicate, discuss and arouse progress in research, development and application of CBM and structural concrete through combination of expertise from distinct fields of knowledge, including such exciting fields of research as performance-based design, 3D modelling for analysis/design, Building Information Modelling and even robotics, while keeping focus on multi-scale approaches at time and spatial levels. Specific attention is also paid to the challenges that are inherent to the combination of different expertises, and the ways through which better management and research collaboration can be achieved in the interdisciplinary research projects.

The conference SynerCrete’23 consisted of lectures by researchers and other professionals from a variety of scientific disciplines in works targeted to cement-based materials and structures, as well as a selected panel of invited speakers. The conference was intended for researchers and practitioners at any career level who have interest in deepening knowledge on the targeted subjects.