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Lightweight constructions are assumed to not have the same performance as massive constructions regarding building physics and climate. Experimental studies show however that lightweight building envelopes made of textile-reinforced concrete are hygrothermal at least equal to conventional envelopes. Thus, it was proven that lightweight constructions have good properties concerning indoor and surface climate as well as durability. In addition, textile-reinforced concrete contributes to sustainable building, such as reducing the needed amount of cement and sand. In this study, a facade of textile-reinforced concrete was developed that surpasses or at least is equal to most building physical properties of conventional constructions. Furthermore, selected requirements for building physics and architecture (e.g., thermal energy storage over the day) were examined and compared to conventional constructions. The main results are: It has been found that lightweight constructions made of textile concrete exceed the contribution to summer thermal protection in most cases compared to conventional building constructions. These results will form the basis for future ways of building facades. They will be much lighter and thus architecturally more appealing without adversely affecting the buildings’ physical and climatic properties.

As a result of climate change, more ecological building materials are continuously developed and find their way into the construction industry. These new building constructions also require new manufacturing technologies. Using examples from research and industry show how partial and complete automation can be used for the practical and individual series production of facade elements made of new building materials such as carbon concrete. The focus is on the complete internal production of some subcomponents. Thus, on the analogy of the production of steel reinforcement onsite in the precast plant, reinforcements made of textile-based materials can also be produced individually in a circulation process down to batch sizes of one without trimming and therefore without waste. The dependence on intermediate product manufacturers can be eliminated and supply bottlenecks avoided. This rethinking of their plant production enables precast producers to manufacture economically and ecologically optimized reinforcements from carbon fibers and integrate them into their circulation process. This adapted production of semi-finished and finished parts made of carbon concrete is implemented similar to the production of precast reinforced concrete elements on existing plant components. Here, too, examples from research and industry are used to demonstrate the need for adaptation in the conventional manufacturing process.

The construction industry plays a central role in the design of our environment. Global population growth is associated with an increase in material resource consumption and CO2 emissions. Sustainable ideas and developments to reduce the need for resources and CO2 emissions as well as to increase the service life of buildings are becoming more important. Carbon Concrete Composite – C³ is made of a high-tensile reinforcement with carbon fibers and concrete is particularly convincing due to its high durability and long service life. In practice, its suitability has already been proven in numerous projects, so that carbon reinforced concrete is an integral part of research and application. The selected example illustrates the potential of carbon concrete construction. For this purpose, a material-related and systemic comparison of steel and carbon reinforced concrete is carried out using the example of a carbon reinforced concrete bridge.

Mit dem Projekt Carbon Concrete Composite (kurz: C³-Projekt), dem derzeit größten Forschungsprojekt im deutschen Bauwesen, soll eine wirtschaftliche Anwendung eines Hochleistungswerkstoffs im Massenmarkt möglich werden. Die grundlegenden Ideen zu C³ wurden in Dresden und Aachen geboren und basieren auf der Erforschung von Textilbeton. Gerade im Bauwesen gestaltet sich die Einführung innovativer Ideen aufgrund normativer und baurechtlicher Beschränkungen oft schwierig und sehr zeitintensiv. Mit dem C³-Projekt bietet sich die Chance, vielversprechende Ideen aus Forschung und Industrie schneller umzusetzen. Durch einen gezielt geförderten Technologietransfer kann ein beschleunigter Übergang in die Baupraxis vollzogen werden. Aktuell beschäftigen sich über 167 Partner aus Forschung, Wirtschaft, Verbänden und Vereinen an dem neuartigen Verbundwerkstoff. Die Projektziele sind mit dem Ausbau, der Ansiedlung und Neugründung von Unternehmen entlang der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette, von den Grundmaterialien bis zum fertigen Bauwerk, verbunden. Das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) fördert das Projekt im Rahmen der Initiative „Zwanzig20 – Partnerschaft für Innovation“ mit bis zu 45 Millionen Euro. Hinzu kommen circa 15 Millionen Euro Eigenmittel der beteiligten Partner. Neben der geschichtlichen Entwicklung liefert der Artikel einen Überblick über das breite Inhaltsspektrum des Großforschungsprojektes C³.

The world of construction becomes smarter. New building processes, such as building information modeling (BIM), automated manufacturing (Industry 4.0) and sustainable building are an integral part of today’s industry. Also, new material combinations, like carbon reinforced concrete, capture more and more construction applications. The number of practical examples of carbon reinforced concrete has increased. However, this is only the beginning, as the development goals have not been reached yet. After the first approved systems, further questions arise, including high-temperature-resistant reinforcement, economic production processes and the vision of an integral planned, automatically produced, and sustainable smart building. In this vision, the embedded carbon reinforcement is part of the infrastructure that enables smart-home applications and pushes the research ahead. For example, pre-pregs of carbon reinforced concrete are being developed, based on well-known carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) applications. The curing process can be controlled and brought to an end at the construction side, days, or even weeks after the pre-fab production has taken place. Automated robots are capable of placing the carbon yarn in the pre-fabricated formwork. So, the typical manufacturing (value) chain is becoming outdated, as the usual rebar or grid manufacturing is omitted– these are also part of the current developments. Also, mineral coatings for the high-temperature- resistant reinforcement are also under development, and it is showing promising results. Another niche industry revolves around multifunctional pre-cast components with integrated heating and energy storage and load-bearing functions, which are already cheaper than the classic separated components. We lead the C³ carbon concrete composite R & D project and have an overview of the latest forward- looking and visionary development approaches in carbon reinforced concrete.

Concrete is a multifunctional construction material and currently the most employed one. Buildings built with reinforced concrete can provide excellent structures. However, current reinforced concrete constructions have a drawback – steel in concrete can corrode and can cause significant damage. To prevent this, concrete, dependent on its ambient surrounding, has to be protected by a thick concrete cover. This leads to a high material, resource and energy consumption and notable carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, the service life of reinforced concrete is still limited to 40 to 80 years.For decades, an alternative to steel reinforcement has been searched for. In Germany, the focus has been laid on non-metallic reinforcements such as glass and carbon. In the 1990s, basic research has begun in the field of textile reinforcement and shown very promising results. For 10 years now the material has been slowly transferred into practice.For German companies and research institutions as well as the German government there is a future in carbon reinforced concrete – a further development of textile reinforced concrete (TRC). Carbon reinforced concrete shall be used for new constructions and for the strengthening of existing structures. Germany wants to build more sustainable and energy-efficient in the future and wants to reduce quickly the existing investment backlog. The market launch shallbe quick and extensive.However, there are still numerous conditions that need to be established, e.g. thicker cross sections, suitable connection devices, economic production processes and appropriate guidelines. To set up these conditions, Germany is currently investing about 65 million euros(45 million euros public funds plus around20 million euros company funds) in the quick exploration of the material and anew construction design.More than 130 companies and research institutions from different industrial sectors participate in the currently largest research project C3 – Carbon Concrete Composite in the building industry. The aim is to establish all necessary conditions in order to widely apply the new construction design by 2020.This paper provides an insight into the topic carbon reinforced concrete, the overall research project and all ongoing particular projects

One of the world's largest R & D projects within the construction industry focuses on carbon reinforced concrete technology. Civil engineering is an old-fashioned industry with very slow innovation strength. Despite this difficulty, a new method of construction, planning and industrial production shall be established to solve most pressing foreseen problems. The new composite material made of carbon and concrete is leading the way to establish a new durable, lightweight and resource efficient building method. Furthermore, the use of carbon reinforced concrete in single construction projects has increased in the last years. The purpose of this paper is to show the range of application that is already possible in carbon reinforced concrete.