“Develop flexibility and you will be firm; cultivate yielding and you will be strong.” This saying of the Ancient Chinese philosopher Liezi is relevant not only for people — Liezi’s target audience — but for building materials, which also collapse under pressure when they lack the ability to yield. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have taken this lesson to heart, developing a bendable concrete that could revolutionize architecture. The product, called ConFlexPave, integrates polymer microfibers into the liquid mixture in order to produce a stronger, more flexible material. The added strength-to-size ratio would allow the manufacture of thin, prefabricated concrete slabs that could be included in any number of architectural projects. Video via YouTube “We developed a new type of concrete that can greatly reduce the thickness and weight of precast pavement slabs, hence enabling speedy plug-and-play installation, where new concrete slabs prepared off-site can easily replace worn-out ones,” explained NTU Professor Chu Jian, who leads the University-affiliated NTU-JTC Industrial Infrastructure Innovation Centre (I³C), which spearheaded the project. The team’s breakthrough came when they examined the molecular structure of concrete, which is a cured mixture of water, gravel and sand. By doing this, they were able to find ... , Pat Finn, read more http://ift.tt/2c99ggN
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