Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBPOur area of expertise “Inorganic Materials and Recycling” is divided into two areas "Building Materials Technology" and “Processing and Recovery”, uniting our know-how in mineralogy and solid state analytics, as well as in conservation science and civil engineering. Our research focuses on the development of innovative and sustainable building materials, on processing waste concrete or rubble and on preserving the substance of historical buildings. In addition to concrete mixtures tailored to requirements and producing lightweight concrete, insulating materials and fiber-reinforced composites, we also develop cement-free building materials such as geopolymers. All concrete production processes can be performed in our building materials laboratory - from developing formulas and optimizing mixtures through to determining the properties of fresh and hardened concrete. Another key area of our work is assessing the durability of building materials (e.g. their stability on exposure to freeze-thaw cycles, alkali-silica reactions), as well as researching into physical-chemical mechanisms capable of causing damage to building materials.
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Building materials
Our experts in the building materials laboratory handle all types of building materials, from lightweight and aerated concrete to plaster, bricks and cement-free materials. In order to produce innovative, recyclable building materials, we are increasingly concentrating on the use of raw materials based on organic matter and on inorganic residues from incineration processes.