INDUSTRY NEWS
Australia Leading the Way in Construction and Building Materials Source: Sally Wood Australian researchers are at the forefront of materials science innovation.
Together, with their industry counterparts, scientists have been bringing research to life to transform Australia’s renewables and technologyfirst future. Two research projects, from Monash University and UNSW Sydney have been recently published. Together, these breakthroughs will improve a material’s damage tolerance by reducing the use of cement used in construction materials; and offer a design solution to moderate temperatures year-round
Animal Exoskeletons Lead to Advances in Designing Construction Materials Researchers from Monash University recently discovered a design motif derived from the rigid external covering of invertebrates. This research may help to create more damage-tolerant materials for future building and construction projects. The cement industry is one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide. It creates up to 8% of worldwide humanmade emissions of this gas. But this research from Monash University will assist in reducing the use of cement by improving the material’s damage tolerance. Professor Wenhui Duan from the Department of Civil Engineering said the pattern can add a high strength motif to commonly used building materials like composites and cement, and may help in reducing carbon emissions. “We demonstrated the application of this design motif in producing a high strength, damage tolerant lightweight cement material,” he said. In addition, this design motif can also be applied to various materials like ceramic, glass, polymeric and metallic materials for advanced materials design, energy storage, conversion, 26 | JUNE 2022
and architectural structures. The research team replicated the design motif in cement material, which is one of the most consumed construction materials in the world. Together, they used a 3D printing technique combined with nanotechnology and artificial intelligence to fabricate a lightweight cement composite, which adopted a segmental design motif. This demonstrated a superior loadbearing capacity and a unique progressive failure pattern. Since the 1972 discovery of the helical structure—one of the most common structural patterns in biology—there has been a drive to extract design motifs from more than 7 million living species in the world. After 50 years of research undertaking, remarkable repetitions have been confirmed in most classes of species but only eight categories of design motifs have ever been extracted and adopted in materials design, until now. This design structure has been identified in various species such as the exoskeletons of arthropods, the legs of mammals, amphibians and reptiles. They are valuable sources of inspiration for modern materials design and aid the fabrication of structural material. “Compared to the current design motif, our segmental design motif dissipates the energy by segment rotation,” Professor Duan said. “The beauty of our discovered design motif is that the material can exhibit a unique periodic progressive failure behaviour.” “It means we can contain the damage within a particular region of material, while the rest of the structure can still maintain the integrity and most (around 80%) of load-bearing capacity,” he added. The research is widely available in Nature Communications, and forms part of the ARC Nanocomm Hub. This provides a centralised platform BACK TO CONTENTS
to transform the construction materials industry into an advanced manufacturing sector in sustainable and resilient infrastructure assets. Professor Wenhui Duan works at the interface of materials science and civil engineering. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, and has been an early pioneer in the development of nanoscience and nanocomposites for civil engineering applications.
Innovative Building Materials Helping to Moderate Temperature A team from UNSW Sydney has developed intelligent building materials that can help keep the temperature in check throughout the seasons. This innovative design solution adjusts the optical properties used in conventional heat mitigation materials to change the amount of heat they reflect and emit. The changes occur depending on the temperature in the air. The materials were designed by a team of researchers, who believe they can be used in buildings worldwide to better protect them from the elements. “This is a smart, intelligent building material that understands the urban temperature, and it is modulated according to the weather conditions. So it is ideal for cities that have issues with overheating in summer, but also have heating requirements during winter,” Professor Mat Santamouris said. Extreme urban heat is the most documented climate change phenomenon. It affects more than 450 cities worldwide. Higher urban temperatures significantly increase energy consumption needs and adverse impacts on health, including heatrelated morbidity and mortality. Professor Santamouris specialises in developing heat mitigation technologies and strategies that decrease urban temperatures. His team recently tested the new generation of materials in Kolkata, India. WWW.MATERIALSAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
