High Concrete Group has unveiled a novel concrete mix design with a superior solar reflectance to enhance the solar reflectance of precast concrete surfaces, causing them to remain cooler.
High Concrete Group’s partner, BASF Construction Chemicals conducted a solar reflectance test and verified that the mix design’s solar reflectance index (SRI) is 82, almost double the SRI value of the traditional gray concrete mixes of the company.
High Concrete Group’s high-SRI precast compared with a standard precast sample
High solar reflectance precast concrete enables buildings to reflect solar heat rather than absorb it, allowing the project teams to achieve their sustainable design goals for new institutional, commercial and other buildings.
The heat reflectance of the exterior surfaces of a building affects its role in the urban heat island phenomenon, an effect in which constructed areas are drastically warmer than nearby rural areas, causing inferior air quality and high utility expenditures. The utilization of high solar reflectance precast concrete reverses the urban heat island effect.
High Concrete Group, in partnership with BASF has produced the high solar reflectance concrete mix design utilizing 75% of white cement and 25% of ground granulated blast furnace slag for the cementitious content. The ground granulated blast furnace slag is a recycled material. Local limestone lumps offered a neutral-colored base. The form-finished white concrete block sample made from the concrete mix design achieved the SRI of 82.
High Concrete Group offers the high-SRI concrete mix for specification in its architectural precast concrete wall panels such as its portfolio of CarbonCast thermally efficient precast enclosures. The concrete mix design can also be used with the company’s CarbonCast double tees and MEGA-Tee precast double tees, which are used in the building of precast parking structures’ driving surface.