Sustainability of construction materials in Bangladesh

Abstract

The global high growth rate of population and economic development has led to an increased volume of concrete consumption each year. Roughly around 18 billion metric tons of concrete is consumed globally each year. Consumption of such a huge volume of construction materials for making new infrastructures may create a sustainability crisis in the near future. This is also a concern for developing countries like Bangladesh. For sustainable development of concrete construction materials in Bangladesh, research works on several important issues were carried out, such as (1) understanding of main causes of deterioration of concrete structures in Bangladesh, (2) identification of problems at construction sites that causes early deterioration of concrete structures in Bangladesh, (3) understanding of deterioration of concrete structures due to chloride and carbonation induced corrosion, (4) utilization of mineral by-product in cement, and (5) recycling of demolished concrete as coarse and fine aggregates, (6) utilization of brick fine aggregate in concrete, and (7) utilization of induction furnace slag as coarse aggregate. Several important conclusions are drawn based on these studies that will play a vital role for sustainable use of concrete construction materials in Bangladesh.