We have the pleasure to welcome you to the Web-site of the Nordic Concrete Federation (NCF). The Nordic Concrete Federation (NCF) is a collaboration organization of the concrete associations in the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. NCF is publishing bi – annually publications (NCR) and proceedings from Nordic workshops. Previously issues… Continue Reading
The December 2023 issue of Nordic Concrete Research Journal is available for download at the open access platform Sciendo. Click here for access.
About the issue:
The science of concrete covers three different parts; (i) materials, (ii) structures, and (iii) production. In recent years, a large share of the Nordic concrete research has been focusing on sustainability, especially on more environmentally friendly concrete mixtures where parts of the Portland cement content have been replaced by industrial by-products, e.g., fly-ash, silica fume, and slag. Simultaneously, the research devoted to concrete structures and especially concrete production has diminished. Thus, it is satisfying that current issue of Nordic Concrete Research presents at least one paper on production, in this case on workability. In Norway, a sudden and problematic change in workability has been observed in as much as 30 % of the concrete production. Likely causes are changes in the material properties, especially in the particle size distributions of both fine and coarse aggregates. Shotcrete and 3D printing (3DP) och concrete have several similarities. In both cases, formwork is omitted, casting is replaced by spraying or printing through a nozzle and the fresh concrete needs to have a certain strength in order to either adhere to a surface or carrying the subsequent printing layers. Since the maximum aggregate size is limited in both cases, the cement content is fairly high. In a Swedish paper, tests where parts of the Portland cement are replaced by slag are conducted. A key to success in the shotcrete business is rapid hardening and, in this paper, it has been shown that a compressive strength of 18 MPa could be obtained already after 24 hours for a replacement level of 35 percent. By using 3DP, it will be possible to optimize concrete structures based on the stress flow, i.e., increasing the local material volume or thickness in areas with high stresses and minimizing the thickness in areas with low stresses. A Swedish paper shows an attempt to study this in the laboratory by the use of small-scale specimens. Carbonation of concrete leads CO2 uptake from the atmosphere and thus a CO2 sink. In a Swedish paper, forced carbonation has been studied on crushed cement pastes containing Portland cement and either fly ash (FA) or ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). The CO2 uptake was found to be higher in mixtures containing FA or GGBS than in the reference mix containing solely Portland cement. The final two papers deal with various durability problems. One Danish paper is investigating the chloride migration in concrete mixes with blended cement whereas the other one (a Finnish paper) is focusing on the concrete cover that is necessary for long-term durability. Different none destructive test (NDT) methods were studied to measure the concrete cover. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has advantages in concrete structures with reinforcement in large percentages and with a complex geometry whereas the simple cover meter is the most suitable method in simpler reinforcement arrangements.
Nordic Concrete Research – Publ. No. NCR 69 – ISSUE 2 / 2023 – Preface Stockholm in December 2023 Johan Silfwerbrand Editor of NCR
Click here for an overview of all previous issues of the NCR Journal.
Issue 1 of NCR no. 68 (July 2023) covers six very different topics, three towards materials and three towards structures.
The material papers deal with frost, chloride diffusion and moisture, i.e., three important aspects that are of specific interest in the Nordic countries.
The papers devoted to structures treat influence of Alkali Silica Reactions (ASR) on load effects, fatigue, and the interaction between the concrete bridge deck and its edge beam.
Johan Silfwerbrand Editor of NCR give you an insight of what to expect from the different articels.
“I think this is typical for both Nordic concrete research in general and Nordic Concrete Research (NCR) specifically. The Nordic concrete research may look fragmented but a common denominator is that all papers deal with practical problems that need to be solved in order to make concrete structures more durable, more efficient and more environmentally friendly. The diversity also reflects our research funding systems.
In the 1990s, both Sweden and Norway had large research programmes devoted to high performance concrete with both governmental and private financing. In more recent years, there have been national research programmes on, e.g., self-compacting concrete and “green” concrete but none of these programmes has had the same size and the same life-time as the ones on high performance or high strength concrete.
Today, the most frequent area of concrete research is sustainability and especially replacement of part of the Portland cement with other binders, but there are hardly any national programmes in this area. As long as there is a lack of large national research programmes, the Nordic concrete research will cover a lot of different topics as this issue of NCR is a good example of.”
Stockholm in June 2023, Johan Silfwerbrand Editor of NCR
The NCF board with representatives from all the five Nordic countries met in Reykjavik April 28th for the annual NCF board meeting.
Thank you to Børge Johannes Wigum for making all the arrangements and to Iceland Concrete Association and Hornsteinn for excellent hosting!
The board was represented by these delegates:
Danish Concrete Association:
Marianne Tange Hasholt
Anders Haumann
Norwegian Concrete Association:
Cecilie Hagby, Managing Director/ Treasurer NCF
Berit Gudding Petersen, Chair
Finnish Concrete Association:
Mirva Vuori, Managing Director
Markku Leivo, Chair
Swedish Concrete Association:
Richard McCarthy, Managing Director
Henrik Vinell, Chair
Icelandic Concrete Association:
Þorbjörg Hólmgeirsdóttir, Managing Director
Børge Johannes Wigum, Chair/Chair NCF 2021/22
The board had fruitful discussions on collaborative projects such as webinars, workshops and national competence requrements. The board also discussed the NCR Journal and aspects regarding Index Factor and how to promote the journal and make it even more prefered and known. The access to dedicated and competente reviewers is an important asset. The board expressed a great thank you to Johan Siwferbrandt for editing the journal and for keeping and renewing the list of reviewers. The NCR Journal is issued in June and in December with 6 to 9 articles per issue.
The NCF board decided on venue and dates for the next Nordic Concrete Research Symposium.
The symposium will be hosted by the Norwegian Concrete Association in Sandefjord August 19th – 22nd 2025.
Representatives for five Nordic countries met in Reykjavik on April 27th for the annual in- person meeting in the RCNCF. With great engagement regarding cement, alternative binders and concrete the council discussed workshops, webinars and the NCR journal in addition to strategic planning for the council’s assignments and focal points. To joyful excitement of the delegates there were also time for a spontaneous field trip to Hornsteinns planned excavation sites for natural pozzolan. Thank you to Børge Johannes Wigum for organizing the meeting and the field trip. And thank you to Hornsteinn and the Iceland Concrete Association for hosting the meeting and the wonderful dinner in Reykjavik Thursday night.
Representatives from the RCNCF: in front: Johan Silwferbrandt (Chair) Katarina Malaga, Børge Johannes Wigum, Cecilie Hagby and Jens Peder Ulfkjær. In the back: Terje Rønning, Mårten Janz, Jukka Lahdensivu, Jouni Punkki and Wolfgang Kunther.
Field trip to the natural pozzolan, Hyaloclastite, sites:
All photos: Hornsteinn
Congratulations on the much-deserved award, Johan!
Reasons based on the statutes:
Johan Silfwerbrand has for many years been very active on both the national, the Nordic, and the international concrete scene. He serves as an ambassador for the excellent performance of well-designed concrete structures and material.
Through his shared position as Professor at Structural Design and Bridges at KTH and as manager of CBI Betonginstitutet, Johan Silfwerbrand has for many years had a strong influence on the research and innovation related to concrete. Since 2014, he has been working full-time at KTH as Professor with responsibility for research and education within bridge design.
Johan Silfwerbrand’s work covers both concrete structural design and concrete technology within a number of applications, e.g: concrete repair work, self-compacting concrete, fiber-reinforced concrete, concrete floors for industrial use, and issues related to fire.
Johan Silfwerbrand is an enthusiastic believer in interaction between human beings. He has produced a long list of scientific articles, alone or with co-authors. He is assigned as editor with the Swedish journal “Betong” and chief editor of the journal “Nordic Concrete Research”, the latter transferring from a subscription based paper journal to a digital Open Access journal with a substantial increase in audience.
Johan Silfwerbrand is active within professional and networking activities like the Swedish Concrete Association, the Research Committee of the Nordic Concrete Federation, Swedish Universities of the Built Environment (SBU), the Swedish Institute for Standards, ACI and fib.
Board meeting of the Nordic Concrete Federation in Copenhagen, April 2022.
Marianne Tange Hasholt
Chair of the NCF Board
During the Nordic Concrete Research Symopsium in Stockholm, Tobias Danner was awarded the award for best research article, Danner received the award for the article Tobias Danner, Harald Justnes:
“The Influence of Production Parameters on Pozzolanic Reactivity of Calcined Clays” which was published in Nordic Concrete Research, no. 59, 2018.
The Nordic Concrete Research Best Paper Award is awarded every three years during the Nordic Concrete Research Symposium. The prize is awarded to 1-2 young researchers (under 35 years of age at the time of publication) for an article published in the Nordic Concrete Research Journal in the time between two symposia. In the assessment of the articles, emphasis is placed on news value, research method and the authors’ communication skills. This time it was five years since the last symposium and thus five years since the previous award. This year’s award was therefore extra high and Tobias Danner is warmly congratulated for the best article from a total of ten publications of the Nordic Concrete Research Journal.
The above-mentioned article is distinguished by an innovative and relevant topic, thorough research and documentation and a clear presentation of the material.
Nordic Concrete Journal is published twice a year and each issue contains 6 to 8 Nordic scientific articles. The NCR Journal is free and can be read by anyone. Read more about NCR Journal here.
The congress is strongly driven by the need of innovation in order to meet the ambitious global goals of a sustainable society such as energy saving, reduced CO2‐emission and use of resources, efficient construction and higher performance to lower cost, but also other sustainability matters.
For more Information please click this link: fib International Congress 2022 Oslo
Nordic Concrete Federation (NCF) welcomes colleagues from the Nordics and Baltic interested in concrete research and education to the XXIV Nordic Concrete Research Symposium. The Symposium will cover all aspects of concrete related to materials, design, production, construction, use/application and sustainability.
The next Nordic Concrete Research Workshop is Wednesday 20. April 2022 at Technical University of Denmark (Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark)
For more information and registration click here: Accelerated freeze-thaw testing of concrete
Denmark site
Finland site
Iceland site
Norway site
Sweden site