Microstructural-related durability of cementitious composites: Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 11-13 April 2012

Durability of materials and structures is one of the key-components of sustainable development. Premature failures due to any kind of degradation gives rise to expensive repair or, in the worst case, complete demolition of a structure. The indirect costs of repair due to process or traffic interruptions may easily exceed 5 to 10 times the direct costs. Premature failure of aging materials and structures and, hence, a shorter service life, also means higher impact on the environment and a negative contribution to the development of a sustainable society. Degradation of materials and structures finds its origin in infinitesimal small changes and instabilities at the atomic, nano and microscale of a material. These are the levels at which aging phenomena start. This is at least one way to look at durability and sustainable issues. In 2008 this way of looking at the problem had inspired the school of Materials Sciences & Engineering of Southeast University in China and the section Materials & Environment of Delft University of Technology to organize the first International Conference on Microstructure Related Durability of Cementitious Composites in Nanjing. The conference became a success and it was decided to organize a second conference, Microdurability’2012, in Amsterdam. The response to the call for papers for this second conference was overwhelming. Over 260 abstracts were submitted, finally resulting in almost 190 papers. Attendants from more than 40 countries have subscribed to the conference, representing all continents. This response convincingly illustrates the relevance of the topic and the interest of researchers and other stakeholders to participate in the durability debate. Microdurability’2012 is a Sino-Dutch initiative organized under the umbrella of RILEM and is also supported by ACI. The organizers would like to thank both RILEM and ACI for adopting this conference. From the Chinese side both Southeast University and Jiangsu Research Institute of Building Science participated in organizing this conference, whereas from the Dutch side Delft University of Technology was involved. Since the conference takes place in The Netherlands, it is clear that most of the work for organizing this event was carried by staff members and PhD students from the TU Delft. The enthusiasm and perseverance of the key-persons in the organization, Mrs. Iris Batterham and dr. Ye Guang and their team was enormous and is gratefully acknowledged here. On behalf of the Organizing Committee we would finally like to thank all the keynote speakers, the Scientific Committee, authors and delegates for their collaboration and presence in this conference. The support from companies, who have sponsored the conference, is gratefully acknowledged. We wish you all most fruitful discussions during this conference, a wonderful stay in Amsterdam and unforgettable visits to typically Dutch places in Amsterdam’s neighborhood.