Construction Materials: From Innovation to Conservation
- PDF / 521,156 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 54 Downloads / 239 Views
Construction
Materials: From Innovation to Conservation
Karen Scrivener and Henri Van Damme, Guest Editors Abstract This article serves to introduce the May 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin on Construction Materials: From Innovation to Conservation. By volume, building materials are by far the most widely used type of materials. The most common construction materials—concrete and wood—are paradigms of complex and hierarchical materials, with a microstructure extending quasi-continuously down to the nanoscale. In the past, most improvements have been obtained by modifying the microstructure at the largest scales, for instance, by reducing the macroporosity. Recent advances in our understanding of the interactions and microstructure development show that the major levers for improvement from now on will rely on surface and colloid science and the science of complex materials, often at the nanoscale. This can lead to remarkable properties, such as self-compaction and ultrahigh strength, and even new functionality, such as self-cleaning through photocatalysis. Construction materials face a wide range of challenges today, many of which are linked to the need for more sustainable development: reducing the consumption of raw materials, reducing the energy used in processing, and increasing service life. In many parts of the world, there is also an increasing need to repair, rehabilitate, and conserve old buildings. The articles in this issue touch on these challenges as well as the advances being made in construction materials through materials research. Keywords: cement, cohesion, concrete, construction materials, flow modeling, granular materials, photocatalysis, raw earth, self-cleaning materials, rheology, wood.
By volume, construction materials are by far the most widely used type of materials. Buildings, bridges, roads, dams, and other parts of our infrastructure can be made of concrete, wood, earth, glass, steel, or a variety of other materials, ranging from lowtech to advanced. At first glance, these materials have little in common, except their final use. Glass is a transparent, amorphous, and brittle dielectric material, while steel is a polycrystalline metallic conductor. Concrete is composed of aggregates (essentially, crushed rock or gravel) bound together with cement, while wood is a natural polymeric multiscale organic composite (an unsurpassed example for the present biomimetic approach in materials science).
308
Yet, a closer look shows that from a materials science perspective, two unifying themes emerge in this heterogeneous landscape. The first covers glass, steel, and cement, all of which require a knowledge of high-temperature phase equilibria and microstructure formation. Understanding these materials also draws on knowledge from the geological sciences. A second point of commonality brings concrete, earth, and wood together. All three are porous materials, with a broad range of microstructural length scales. All three bear a special relationship with water and swell or shrink depending on moisture c
Data Loading...
