SynerCrete’23

14, 15 & 16 June 2023 - Milos Island, Greece

The International RILEM Conference on Synergising expertise towards sustainability and robustness of cement-based materials and concrete structures

Overview

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.

Agnieszka Jędrzejewska and Fragkoulis Kanavaris
Chairs of SynerCrete’23

Miguel Azenha, Farid Benboudjema and Dirk Schlicke
Chairs of the Scientific Committee of SynerCrete’23

Conference Topics

The focus of the conference was given to synergising interdisciplinary expertise on cement-based materials and concrete structures towards more robust and sustainable solutions on both material and structural level. The following sub-topics were discussed:

  1. Alternative concrete formulations for adaptation to climate change
    • Concrete technology, durability and advanced material testing
    • Cement replacement materials
    • Bio-based, geopolymers, alkali-activated materials and other novel binders
    • Natural and calcined natural pozzolans and calcination processes
  2. Performance-based and multiphysics/multiscale design and innovative testing
    • Multi-scale in time and space modelling
    • Multi-physics simulation and structural design
    • Novel testing techniques
  3. Structural health monitoring (SHM) and maintenance management
    • Proven techniques and new approaches for SHM
    • Consideration of measurement data in maintenance strategies
    • Infrastructure maintenance management
  4. Integral BIM-based planning
    • Planning in a perfect BIM-environment
    • BIM and structural design
    • Novel approaches in BIM
    • Practical examples
  5. Resource-responsible building
    • Innovative building methods
    • Recent developments on guidelines and standardization
    • Sustainability and life-cycle assessment of concrete materials and structures
    • Robotics and cement-based materials
    • Digital fabrication

Venue

The event took place on the island of Milos in Greece.

Milos, known as the island of Aphrodite, is considered to be one of the most breath-taking destinations in the Cyclades island complex, with unique natural beauty. It is a Greek island known for its spectacular beaches and volcanic landscape, filled with mesmerising colours.

Milos has a long track history in mining owing to its geological morphology with high-quality kaolinite, bentonite, perlite and sulfur deposits found across the island. Few would also be aware that the island of Milos is regarded as an active volcano in the Aegean sea, which justifies the occurrence of the deposits of natural pozzolans in the wider region, such as volcanic ash.

The Milos Conference Center

The Milos Conference Center – George Eliopoulos is located at Adamas, Milos Island’s main port, on a 10,000 sq. meters plot. The Milos Conference Center is housed in a restored old kaolin processing plant, built in 1925, overlooking the gulf of Milos. It is an excellent sample of its period’s industrial architecture.

It was abandoned and derelict for many years, falling apart before the ruin was fully restored with high aesthetic standards and respect to its original architecture. The initial concept was to be preserved and serve as a characteristic benchmark of the country’s industrial heritage. The ultimate decision was the edifice to be used as the home for conferences, cultural and other events, solving thus one of the Island’s perennial problems, the lack of modern large multipurpose halls.

Social events: Gala dinner and boat tour

The conference dinner took place at ‘Kipos café’, a fabulous tavern placed on the top of the hill with an amazing view over a Kipos beach, mesmerising with its crystal-clear turquoise waters. A taste of local folk music was given by the Milos Folklore Music School.

The post-conference boat tour was organised to visit via sea the most beautiful spots of Milos island. The boat was specifically chartered for the day only for those associated with SynerCrete’23 conference and their accompanying persons which gave an unconventional opportunity for socialising and networking.

Committees

Organizing Committee

Agnieszka Jędrzejewska (Chair), Silesian University of Technology, POLAND
Fragkoulis Kanavaris (Chair), ARUP, London, UK

Dirk Schlicke, Institute of Structural Concrete, TU Graz, AUSTRIA
Farid Benboudjema, ENS Paris-Saclay, FRANCE
Miguel Azenha, ISISE, University of Minho, PORTUGAL

Local support

Christina Krenn, TU Graz, AUSTRIA
Eva Dorfmann, TU Graz, AUSTRIA
Hares Felic, TU Graz, AUSTRIA
Jose Arellano, TU Graz, AUSTRIA
Florian Steindl, TU Graz, AUSTRIA
Marlene Sakoparing, TU Graz, AUSTRIA
Fatima Masara, ENS Paris-Saclay, FRANCE
Sofiane Ait-Hamadouche, ENS Paris-Saclay, FRANCE
Camille Martin-Cavaille, ENS Paris-Saclay, FRANCE
Claudio Ferreira, FEUP, PORTUGAL
Renan Ribeiro, University of Minho, PORTUGAL
Thomas Russo, University of Minho, PORTUGAL

General information
News feed
Scientific Committee

Miguel Azenha (Chair), ISISE, University of Minho, PORTUGAL
Farid Benboudjema (Chair), ENS Paris-Saclay, FRANCE
Dirk Schlicke (Chair), Institute of Structural Concrete, TU Graz, AUSTRIA

Ali Abbas, UK

Jean-Luc Adia, FRANCE

Syed Yasir Alam, FRANCE

Ouali Amiri, FRANCE

Sofiane Amziane, FRANCE

Carmen Andrade, SPAIN

Shingo Asamoto, JAPAN

Umberto Berardi, CANADA

Susan Bernal Lopez, UK

Violeta Bokan Bosiljkov, SLOVENIA

Ruben Paul Borg, MALTA

Alexandra Bourdot, FRANCE

Matthieu Briffaut, FRANCE

Antonio Caggiano, ITALY

Alejandro Caldentey, SPAIN

Arnaud Castel, AUSTRALIA

Jean Philippe Charron, CANADA

Fanjie (Sam) Chen, AUSTRALIA

Özlem Cizer, BELGIUM

Florence Collet, FRANCE

Alexis Courtois, FRANCE

Aveline Darquennes, FRANCE

Nele De Belie, BELGIUM

Abobakr Elwakeel, UK

Eduardo Fairbairn, BRAZIL

Rui Faria, PORTUGAL

Miguel Ferreira, FINLAND

Etore Funchal de Faria, BRAZIL

Ivan Gabrijel, CROATIA

Dariusz Gawin, POLAND

José Granja, PORTUGAL

Tulio Honorio, FRANCE

Ole Jensen, DENMARK

Agnieszka Jędrzejewska, POLAND

Sri Kalyana Rama Jyosyula, INDIA

Gintaris Kaklauskas, LITHUANIA

Fragkoulis Kanavaris, UK

Antonios Kanellopoulos, UK

Anja Klausen, NORWAY

Barbara Klemczak, POLAND

Eduardus Koenders, GERMANY

Konstantin Kovler, ISRAEL

Markus Krüger, AUSTRIA

Jacek Kwasny, UK

Laurie Lacarriere, FRANCE

Rodrigo Lameiras, BRAZIL

Marco Liebscher, GERMANY

Paulo B. Lourenço, PORTUGAL

Lino Maia, PORTUGAL

Ippei Maruyama, JAPAN

Enrico Masoero, UK

Thomas Matchei, GERMANY

Shishir Mundra, SWITZERLAND

Sree Nanukuttan, UK

Cécile Oliver-Leblond, FRANCE

Małgorzata Pająk, POLAND

Arnaud Perrot, FRANCE

Nivin Phillip, INDIA

Bernhard Pichler, AUSTRIA

Mário Pimentel, PORTUGAL

John Provis, UK

Vlastimir Radonjanin, SERBIA

Ketan Ragalwar, USA

Mezgeen Rasol, FRANCE

Michael Raupach, GERMANY

Kyle Riding, USA

Emmanuel Roziere, FRANCE

Łukasz Sadowski, POLAND

Małgorzata Safuta, POLAND

Jacqueline Saliba, FRANCE

Florence Sanchez, USA

Jorge Sánchez Dolado, SPAIN

Javier Sánchez Montero, SPAIN

David Santillan, SPAIN

Suresh Seetharam, BELGIUM

Alain Sellier, FRANCE

José Sena-Cruz, PORTUGAL

Marijana Serdar, CROATIA

Carlos Serra, PORTUGAL

Ruben Snellings, BELGIUM

Mohammed Sonebi, UK

Carlos Sousa, PORTUGAL

Stéphanie Staquet, BELGIUM

Prannoy Suraneni, USA

Vít Šmilauer, CZECH REPUBLIC

Reignard Tan, NORWAY

Luping Tang, SWEDEN

Jean-Michel Torrenti, FRANCE

Julio Torres Martín, SPAIN

François Toutlemond, FRANCE

Neven Ukrainczyk, GERMANY

Jens Peder Ulfkjaer, DENMARK

Luca Valentini, ITALY

Gideon van Zijl, SOUTH AFRICA

Roman Wan-Wender, BELGIUM

William Wilson, CANADA

Mateusz Wyrzykowski, SWITZERLAND

Guang Ye, THE NETHERLANDS

Ismael Yurtdas, FRANCE

Kamyab Zandi, USA

Hongzhi Zhang, CHINA

Xiangming Zhou, UK

Mariusz Zych, POLAND

Programme

Detailed Programme
TC meetings & Special sessions

TC 275-HBDHygrothermal behaviour and durability of bio-aggregate based building materials

TC 281-CCC: Carbonation of concrete with supplementary cementitious materials

TC 283-CAM: Chloride transport in alkali-activated materials

TC 287-CCS: Early-age and long-term cracking analysis in RC structures

TC 298-EBD: Test methods to evaluate durability of blended cement pastes against deleterious ions

TC 299-TES: Thermal energy storage in cementitious composites

TC MCPAccelerated mineral carbonation for the production of construction materials 

TC 302-CNCCarbon-based nanomaterials for multifunctional cementitious matrices

Keynote speakers

Maria Stefanidou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GREECE)

"Substituting natural pozzolan with artificial derived from industrial perlite waste for mortar production."

Jean-Michel Torrenti (Gustave Eiffel University, FRANCE)

"Fast carbonation of recycled concrete aggregates - the results of the FastCarb project."

Awards & Special Issue

Best Papers Awards

The conference included three awards:

Best Interdisciplinary Research Award

“Experimental investigation on the novel self-healing properties of concrete mixed with commercial bacteria-based healing agent and crystalline admixtures“ from Harry Hermawan, Virginie Wiktor, Pedro Serna and Elke Gruyaert

Best International Collaboration Research Award

“Development of self-sensing cementitious composites with improved water and chloride resistance“ from Wenkui Dong, Wengui Li, Marco Liebscher and Viktor Mechtcherine

Best PhD Research Award

“The impact of chloride binding on the resistance to carbonation: from single cycle degradation towards the complexity of multi cycle degradation” from Hanne Vanoutrive (PhD student)

 
Special Issue

The authors of selected papers presented at SynerCrete’23 will be invited to submit original contributions related to their participation in the conference in the special issue of the Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology (published by Japan Concrete Institute, and indexed according to ‘Journal of Citation Reports’) related to SynerCrete’23. ACT Journal publishes original scientific papers or technical reports on innovative or advanced techniques of concrete industry.

Proceedings

The SynerCrete’23 RILEM/Springer Proceedings are available now and can be viewed through the following links.

The Proceedings are being indexed in Scopus and Google Scholar.

Sponsors

Gold sponsors

Institutional support

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Gallery

Conference Rooms

Gala Dinner

Secretariat and Exhibition desks

Welcome cocktail and Coffee breaks

Past Editions

Full site of SynerCrete’18 here.