New Cement Composite Would Allow Infrastructure to Repair Itself

Sept. 28, 2010

From EcoWorldly via AGC:

From EcoWorldly via AGC:

Dr Li and his team developed a bendable, engineered cement composite (EEC) that is much more flexible than traditional concrete. Traditional concrete can suffer catastrophic failure when strained in an earthquake or by routine overuse, but flexible ECC bends without breaking. Its properties are a result of specially coated reinforcing fibers that hold it together.

The beauty of EEC structures would be that most maintenance would need no intervention and would occur continually, so long as the concrete is moistened periodically. Also the concrete doesn’t require any reinforcing steel so the corrosion problem that has plagued the USA’s reinforced concrete infrastructure is essentially eliminated.

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