• Walker, James
• Betz, Kristen
• Muga, Helen
• Eatmon, Thomas
• Richardson, Edith Womack
• Harris, Ronald A.
• Dam, Thomas Van
• Vidor, Andrew
• Pranger, Curtis
• Mihelcic, James R.
• Abdi, Solomon
• Seifert, Christopher

Abstract

population increased by 20 percent, from 5 to 6 billion. This growth, combined with dramatic increases in per capita resource consumption, contributes to increasingly serious social and environmental problems. These problems will only worsen over the next 50 years as the projected world population nears 9 billion and developing nations become more industrialized. The overall purpose of Phase I of this design project was to investigate the feasibility of substituting natural pozzolans for Portland cement in the construction of engineering infrastructure in the developing world. The evaluation criteria used in this Phase 1 study included: workability, strength, availability, economic, societal concerns, and environmental impact. In particular “high tech ” solutions which are not sustainable on a long-term basis in most of the developing world were forgone, and instead students learned to apply “appropriate technology ” – defined as the use of materials and technology that are culturally, economically, and socially suitable to the area in which they are implemented. The use of a natural pozzolans for hydraulic cement began in prehistoric times, and was abandoned for western-based Portland cement concrete technology in the early 1900’s. In recent years incorporation of natural pozzolans into engineering materials has been largely supplanted

Topics

• phase
• strength
• cement