Ultra High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Cementitious Composites as the link between structural durability and sustainability: the experience of the H2020 project ReSHEALience

The need for more environmentally and economically sustainable structures pushes towards ahead the formulation of new advanced cementitious materials which, on the one hand, can reduce the carbon footprint in the production phase, and, on the other hand, can significantly improve the structural durability, thus resulting into a longer service life. In this context, the ReSHEALience project has been launched in 2018 within the Programme Horizon 2020. The project aims at developing a new approach for the design of structures exposed to extremely aggressive environments, based on du-rability and life cycle analysis. The starting point is represented by a novel concept of Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composites (UHPFRCCs), which has been called Ultra-High Durability Concretes (UHDC), characterized by multiple cracking behavior and enhanced self-healing. In a design perspective, this makes it necessary to develop an effective approach for identifying the main parameters describing the overall behavior in tension. In the paper an overall description of the concepts and of the structure behind ReSHEALience project is provided. The core is represented by Sustainability of structures and infrastructures, intended as optimization of materials performance and extension of the service life.