Raman Microspectroscopy Offers Cement Opportunities azooptics.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from azooptics.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credits: Photo: Andrew Logan
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America has over 4 million miles of roads and, as one might expect, monitoring them can be a monumental task.
To collect high-quality data on the conditions of their roads, departments of transportation (DOTs) can expect to spend $200 per mile for state-of-the-art laser profilers. For cities and states, these costs are prohibitive and often force them to resort to rudimentary approaches, like visual inspection.
Over the past three years, a collaboration between the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub), the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Birzeit University, and the American University of Beirut has sought to give DOTs a cheaper, but equally accurate, alternative.
Credits: Photo: Andrew Logan Caption: By running current through this mortar sample made with nanocarbon-doped cement, Chanut and Soliman were able to warm it to 115 F (see thermometer display on the right). Credits: Photo: Andrew Logan Caption: Researchers tested the mechanical properties of their samples by using scratch tests. The results of the testing can be seen on the surfaces of the samples. Credits: Photo: Andrew Logan
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Since its invention several millennia ago, concrete has become instrumental to the advancement of civilization, finding use in countless construction applications from bridges to buildings
. And yet, despite centuries of innovation, its function has remained primarily structural.
Electrifying cement with nanocarbon black - ScienceBlog com scienceblog.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scienceblog.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.