New Concrete Can Monitor Itself

摘要

The levees in New Orleans that failed during the hurricanes Katrina and Rita have focused attention on the importance of sensors that can provide officials and engineers with information about the condition of concrete structures. Help in this area could be in prospect with an approach pioneered by Deborah Chung, Ph.D., a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, that involves what is called smart concrete. Chung says that by introducing small carbon fibers into the concrete mix, a material can be created that incorporates its own sensors.