Novel Application of Chilean Natural Pozzolan for Sustainable Strain-Hardening Cementitious Composite

This study aims to develop a novel solution to improve the sustainability and resiliency of the infrastructure in Chile. Due to the country ' s unique geographic situation of the coastal environment and high seismicity, the key is to design a low-carbon strain-hardening cementitious composite (SHCC) by replacing ordinary portland cement (OPC) with an abundant Chilean natural pozzolan (NP). The results indicate that the optimal replacement level is 30%. The newly developed NP-based SHCC shows a tensile strength of 6 MPa, a tensile strain capacity of 2.5%, and micro-cracks of < 100 mu m. In addition, this study also quantifies the environmental impact of the NP-based SHCC using a ' cradle-to-gate ' life-cycle analysis. By replacing OPC with the NP, the CO2 emission of NP-based SHCC reduces by 23%. The excellent tensile properties and cracking control suggest that NP-based SHCC could contribute to developing sustainable and resilient Chilean infrastructure.