Smart Transport Infrastructure with Nanoengineered Multifunctional Concrete

Concrete is the second most consumed material on earth, only after water, with a global consumption of 30 billion tons each year with growing demand annually. It is worth noting that at least 8% of global emissions caused by humans come from the cement industry alone. This significant carbon footprint, coupled with the depletion of natural resources, including water, has led to growing concerns about the sustainability of concrete construction and initiated a global transformation toward developing sustainable concrete for civil infrastructure. The technical goal of this proposal is to develop nanoengineered multifunctional concretes with self-sensing capabilities enabling real-time monitoring of structural health, enhancing maintenance empowering the early identification of cracks, and facilitating timely repairs before they escalate into significant structural deterioration. This will lead to reduced carbon footprint, energy consumption, and waste generation associated with concrete construction. Previous studies mainly focused on the effect of monotonic nanoparticles, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoplatelets, on the mechanical and sensing properties of multifunctional concrete. This proposal aims to develop a process-microstructure-properties relationship in hybrid multifunctional cement with enhanced mechanical and sensing properties. This proposal will facilitate (i) training and enabling ethnically diverse students to conduct advanced research in material science (ii) faculty career development through collaboration with other COE faculty and extension of cement-based composites to PI’s expertise, (iii) establishing necessary infrastructure at CSULB for conducting advanced research and developing capabilities to apply for external grants.