<
https://newatlas.com/materials/cambridge-3d-prints-game-changing-smart-concrete-structure/>
"Working with private industry, the University of Cambridge has gone one step
beyond 3D printing with a concrete infrastructure unit that was not only made
in an hour, but incorporates sensors to make it self-monitoring and, one day,
self repairing.
If there's one topic least likely to spark animated dinner party conversation,
it's the bits and pieces of civil engineering that one sees while driving along
a nation's road networks. These tend to be taken so much for granted that they
may as well be invisible unless they're something spectacular like a suspension
bridge or annoying like a road being resurfaced.
However mundane that these may seem, they are the product of some very complex
and serious engineering design and serve very real and vital functions that
many people don't appreciate until the road in front of them is washed away or
a ramp collapses.
One of these is what is called a headwall, which is a retaining structure with
a hole in it that's placed at the mouth of a drain or culvert. Its purpose is
to anchor a culvert or similar and to prevent the fill around it from being
scoured away by running water. In addition, it can also provide structural
support to attached bridges and roadways as well as controlling the flow of
water.
It's a very old bit of civil engineering but Cambridge put a new spin on one
installed on the A30 in Cornwall by constructing it onsite using a robotic 3D
printer arm laying down layers of quick-setting concrete that hardened in only
an hour. Again, not very new. What is new is that as the headwall was printed,
a lidar unit made precise scans of the structure, building up a digital virtual
twin against which the real thing can be compared.
Also, wireless sensors were placed in the wet concrete to transmit data on
temperature, strain, pressure, humidity, electrical resistivity, and
electrochemical potential."
Via
Future Crunch:
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-clean-energy-aids-big-cats-africa/
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
