Transforming Cement & its Supply Chain with IoT, Machine Learning and Big Data

Around 5% of concrete on construction projects goes to waste. This is not just an issue of financial loss for building projects but also puts further demand on cement supplies that have been under pressure since the pandemic. Importantly, such waste adds to the already high carbon emissions of concrete.

A project by Cloud Cycle, a tech company that provides digitised solutions to the construction industry, aimed to address this issue with the use of innovative sensor technology to both improve quality control and enable redistribution of surplus concrete.

“There are two key causes of concrete waste on construction sites. Having too little can result in cold joints, where a second pour doesn’t bond and causes potential weakness, so there’s a tendency to over-order,” explains Russell Elfenbein, co-founder of Cloud Cycle. “Then there are also quality issues, where the concrete mix is not optimal for the job, so the batch is rejected.”

With funding from the Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge, Cloud Cycle built upon its existing sensor technology and data platform, working with HS2 Ltd to test developments on real-world construction sites.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” says Elfenbein. “So, we developed the sensors to enable monitoring of consistence and temperature of concrete in a truck in real-time. It allows any issues to be identified early and corrected.”

“[Cloud Cycle] developed the sensors to enable monitoring of consistency and temperature of concrete in a truck in real-time. It allows any issues to be identified early and corrected.”

The project also worked to combine digital sensor technology with intelligent analytics to calculate the volume and time remaining before wet-concrete loads are set. Initially, this was to explore the potential of redistributing surplus on-site, but as the project progressed, the team also investigated its use in blending into fresh batches, says Elfenbein.

“Successfully blending batches is a complex process, and a plant needs a lot of information, including temperatures, volumes and strength of each batch. This project has taken us a step closer to that goal.”

Integration with Building Information Modelling (BIM) helps improve on-site management during construction. The project investigated how sensor data could be fed into the building information model so information about asset quality can be seen at the touch of a button. “It aggregates all the data to provide one record for a slab, for example, which vastly improves efficiency and traceability,” adds Elfenbein.

Cloud Cycle’s sensors are currently installed on 55 trucks, and the number continues to grow. The team are building on the technology, including developing sensors to measure the ratio of water to cement in a batch of wet concrete to forecast strength– a process that currently takes up to a month while concrete cures.

“The construction industry is under significant pressure to reduce its emissions. Digital technologies and real-time data analytics can help plants to optimise concrete batches and construction sites to reduce waste,” says Elfenbein. “It means lower-carbon concrete, increased customer satisfaction, and improved profit margins.”

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