At Long Last: A Concrete That's Nearly Maintenance-Free

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Newswise To Scott Muzenski, the large crack that weather and wear had caused in the driveway of a parking structure at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) presented an opportunity to test his research.

Muzenski, a civil engineering graduate student, had been working on a new kind of high-performance concrete created in the lab of associate professor Konstantin Sobolev. Their cement composite is a durable, water-resistant and malleable paving material with such a high level of crack control that the researchers estimate it has a service life of 120 years or more.

To compare, the average life span of concrete roads in Wisconsin falls in the 40-50-year range, with up to 10 percent of reinforced bridge decks needing replacement after 30 years.

In August, a crew of 25 students joined Muzenski in patching the driveway using the unique material. Then, in order to track whether the material was indeed holding up better than ordinary concrete, they gave the 4-by-15-foot slab the ability to monitor its own performance.

About an inch below the surface, the students embedded electrodes in this smart concrete that are linked to a data acquisition system located behind an adjacent retaining wall. This is going to tell us whether water is getting into the material and how deep it goes, says Muzenski. It also detects the presence of chloride ions within the material, and senses load and stress as vehicles pass over it.

Later this year when the software is completed, the real-time data will be fed wirelessly to an online repository.

Well be able to observe the performance of concrete as it happens, in real time says Sobolev.

The slab project will confirm two important features of this hybrid concrete, called a Superhydrophobic Engineered Cementitious Composite (SECC): its superior durability and its smart capability.

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At Long Last: A Concrete That's Nearly Maintenance-Free