With hundreds of thousands of the nation’s bridges nearing the end of their design lives, cash-strapped states are searching for innovative solutions to repair and replace their decaying structures. One answer may lie in the same material that delivered the stealth aircraft, according to two researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla.
Composite fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), first developed for use in the aerospace and automotive industries, may be able to help nurse the rapidly aging national highway infrastructure beyond its intended lifespan. Dr. Antonio Nanni, the Vernon and Maralee Jones Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at UMR, and Dr. John Myers, assistant professor of civil engineering at UMR, are researching how the composite materials can be used to rehabilitate existing structures as well as to construct new bridges.
The researchers are treating five decaying bridges in rural Missouri with a corrosion-resistant bandage of sorts made of this material. Like a bandage, the composite material is lightweight and flexible. Strips of the material can be wrapped around pillars or wallpapered on lengths of concrete to strengthen the original structure. These composite materials combine the strength of aramid, carbon and glass fibers with the stability of the polymer resins.
Etching Microstructures with Lasers
25.10.2016 | Fraunhofer-Institut für Lasertechnik ILT
Applying electron beams to 3-D objects
23.09.2016 | Fraunhofer-Institut für Organische Elektronik, Elektronenstrahl- und Plasmatechnik FEP
An important step towards a completely new experimental access to quantum physics has been made at University of Konstanz. The team of scientists headed by...
Yersiniae cause severe intestinal infections. Studies using Yersinia pseudotuberculosis as a model organism aim to elucidate the infection mechanisms of these...
Researchers from the University of Hamburg in Germany, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Aarhus in Denmark, have synthesized a new superconducting material by growing a few layers of an antiferromagnetic transition-metal chalcogenide on a bismuth-based topological insulator, both being non-superconducting materials.
While superconductivity and magnetism are generally believed to be mutually exclusive, surprisingly, in this new material, superconducting correlations...
Laser-driving of semimetals allows creating novel quasiparticle states within condensed matter systems and switching between different states on ultrafast time scales
Studying properties of fundamental particles in condensed matter systems is a promising approach to quantum field theory. Quasiparticles offer the opportunity...
Among the general public, solar thermal energy is currently associated with dark blue, rectangular collectors on building roofs. Technologies are needed for aesthetically high quality architecture which offer the architect more room for manoeuvre when it comes to low- and plus-energy buildings. With the “ArKol” project, researchers at Fraunhofer ISE together with partners are currently developing two façade collectors for solar thermal energy generation, which permit a high degree of design flexibility: a strip collector for opaque façade sections and a solar thermal blind for transparent sections. The current state of the two developments will be presented at the BAU 2017 trade fair.
As part of the “ArKol – development of architecturally highly integrated façade collectors with heat pipes” project, Fraunhofer ISE together with its partners...
19.01.2017 | Event News
10.01.2017 | Event News
09.01.2017 | Event News
19.01.2017 | Earth Sciences
19.01.2017 | Life Sciences
19.01.2017 | Physics and Astronomy