RHEO Iceland 2009
Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished representatives of the scientific community from all over the world.
On behalf of the Icelandic Government I am pleased to welcome you all to Iceland, the land of fire and ice. It is a great honor for Iceland to play host to so many guests, and we are well aware that many of you have had a long and tiring journey to reach our country. During the Week of Rheology here in Iceland we combine two conferences into one event with the objective to obtain synergic effects from various fields. It is my belief that we can thus exchange ideas and discuss results to greater extent than would be possible at two separate conferences.
The theme of this week is rheology which is the science of flow of materials.
For the layman this may not sound familiar but this interdisciplinary field of science is highly relevant for our everyday live.
When preparing for this event I learned that concrete and youghurt do indeed have something in common. They both have similar viscosity. Chocolate and cement paste have similar particle concentration. And toothpaste has the same flow resistance as concrete.
I haven´t formed a business idea out of this knowledge but it gives us some idea of how rheology can connect various and distinct fields of science.
To create, one needs knowledge and the initiative to transfer the knowledge into something that can be used. During the last months we have learned the hard way that we can´t rely on the financial sector to create lasting valuables and increase the quality of life. We have to look to fresh ideas and innovation. Albert Einstein ones remarked that if an idea doesn´t sound absurd when first represented then it is probably a hopeless one.
Iceland has a strong tradition in research and development within the construction sector. Extreme weather conditions and seismic activity provide us with great technological challenges reflected in our structures and professional knowledge. ICI Rheocenter is a shining example of the ambition and expertise with which we meet these challenges.
Concrete is the most used construction material in the world. Here in Iceland, concrete is especially important since it is the only construction material which is domestic and you have probably already noticed that most constructions in Iceland are made of concrete. In spite of extremely harsh climatic conditions our experience with concrete is good, even though you can examples of poor concrete.
The most serious problem connected to concrete in Iceland was the alkali-silica reactions in concrete, common in buildings before 1979. This lead to intensive research on preventive actions and now we believe that this problem has been solved, no significant damage due to alkali silica reaction has been reported for more than twenty years. The work was lead by Mr. Hakon Olafsson, the director of the Icelandic Building Research Institute. IBRI is now a part of Innovation Center Iceland. This work is a striking example of how research and development can save the society huge maintenance cost.
We are proud to have here in Iceland the ICI Rheocenter, a center of excellence in cement based materials. This center is advancing to be an outstanding research facility, mastering the state of the art knowledge in concrete technology. The key to improvement is rheology and if we master that we can make the concrete as strong as steel.
Concrete is not so pollutant as it pollutes only about 20% compared to steel by volume (6% per weight). The problem is the sheer mass of concrete used in the world annually or 84% of all material manufactured. We are striving to protect the environment and rheology can indeed help us. By using rheology it is possible to half the CO2 emission from concrete constructions. At the end of the conference you will see a demonstration of such concrete at the Rheocenter, the so-called Eco-crete concept. With the increasing pressure of reducing the release of green house gasses solutions like the Eco-crete become more important for the environmental impact of the building industry.
Self-compacting concrete (sjálfútleggjandi steinsteypa), as I have been informed, is one of the largest steps in the world for the last 50 years in the development of high quality concrete. It flows like a pure liquid while conventional concrete is stiff, not easy to handle and has to be formed in place by heavy vibrators. This new technology affects greatly the community, not least the working conditions at the building site where the hard labor, as placing concrete has always been, is now replaced by a clean and labour-friendly methods. Furthermore, the durability of concrete is increased significantly by use of self-compacting concrete and may thus save the society considerable resources in maintenance costs.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge is the most vital part of any development process and it is enjoyable to see so many active participants in that development. Accordingly, it gives me great pleasure, as Minister of Industry to see the high professional goals set by the organizers and participants of this conference. I hope these goals will be met and I now declare the 18th Nordic Rheology Conference and the 3rd International Rilem Symposium on rheology of fresh concrete open. I hope that your work here will prove fruitful and that all of you who have come from overseas will enjoy your stay in our country.
I end my opening speech by referring to the words of Thomas A. Edison
There is a way to do it better – find it.