Low-Carbon Marine Geopolymer Concrete: Mixture Design Optimization, Sustainability, and Durability

Marine and coastal infrastructure is entering a phase of accelerated renewal driven by climate change, aggressive exposure conditions, and the need for low-carbon construction. Conventional Portland cement–based marine concrete faces persistent challenges under real service environments, including chloride ingress, sulfate attack, wet-dry and temperature-humidity cycling, biofouling and microbially influenced corrosion, as well as cracking and long-term deformation that amplify transport and damage. At the same time, decarbonization targets and circular-economy policies are pushing the field toward alternative binders and resource-efficient mixture strategies.Geopolymer and alkali-activated binders offer a promising pathway to reduce embodied carbon while valorizing industrial by-products (e.g., fly ash, slag, calcined clays) and enabling the use of local aggregates (e.g., sea sand, desert sand). However, translating these materials into reliable marine-grade concrete remains nontrivial. Mixture design must simultaneously address fresh-state workability and constructability, mechanical performance, shrinkage/creep, transport resistance, and long-term durability under coupled environmental and loading actions. Furthermore, reinforcement compatibility (e.g., steel corrosion, FRP durability, bond and interface stability) must be ensured to meet structural requirements in harsh coastal conditions.Recent progress in material chemistry, pore-structure engineering, interfacial design, and durability testing has expanded the design space of geopolymer marine concrete. In parallel, data-driven optimization, multi-physics simulation, and physics-informed modeling are increasingly used to link mixture parameters with performance and service-life outcomes. Despite these advances, gaps remain in establishing robust, interpretable, and engineering-oriented design frameworks that can balance low-carbon goals with long-term performance, especially under realistic marine exposure scenarios and sustained loading.This Research Topic aims to highlight recent advances in sustainable low-carbon geopolymer marine concrete, with an emphasis on mixture design optimization, sustainability assessment, durability engineering, and service-life prediction. We welcome contributions that strengthen the mechanistic understanding of degradation and time-dependent behavior, and that translate this understanding into practical design tools, test protocols, or performance-based specifications for coastal and offshore applications.Particular interest is given to studies that (i) integrate experimental characterization with modeling or optimization, (ii) capture coupled multi-field effects (transport–reaction–damage–time-dependent deformation), and (iii) address engineering deployment including constructability, reinforcement compatibility, and reliability-based design.Relevant topics include, but are not limited to Low-carbon geopolymer/alkali-activated binders for marine and coastal concrete Multi-objective mixture optimization (e.g., strength–durability–cost–carbon footprint) and performance-based design Sustainable raw materials and local aggregates (sea sand, desert sand, recycled aggregates) and their interfacial engineering Rheology, setting control, and constructability under realistic field conditions (pumping, casting, 3D printing/buildability) Transport properties and durability: chloride penetration, sulfate attack, carbonation, freeze–thaw, wet–dry cycling, leaching Microstructure and pore-structure refinement strategies (nanomaterials, fibers, biochar, graphene oxide, etc.) Reinforcement compatibility and structural requirements: steel corrosion mitigation, FRP durability, bond/slip and interface degradation Time-dependent behavior: shrinkage, creep, and long-term stiffness degradation of geopolymer marine concrete and members Coupled multi-physics mechanisms: transport–reaction–damage interactions under sustained loading and marine exposure Service-life prediction, reliability-based durability design, and inverse design for balanced economy and longevity Data-driven approaches (ML, Bayesian optimization) and physics-informed modeling for interpretable performance prediction Accelerated aging methods, exposure-class mapping, and validation against natural marine exposure datasets Standardization, durability indicators, and pathways toward engineering guidelines and scalable deployment Topic editors: Zhiyuan Yang, Bai Zhang (张白), Jiaqi Li Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79722/low-carbon-marine-geopolymer-concrete-mixture-design-optimization-sustainability-and-durability