Applications of Nanotechnology In Construction

Nano-Particles used with building materials are currently used for producing durable, anti-bacterial, purified air compound paint and green building materials. However, some applications of nanotechnology in construction still remain as an idea such as for construction of high-rise buildings, intelligent infrastructure systems, long-span systems etc.

Lu et al. (1992) produced samples with compressive strength up to 800 MPa. Richard et al. (1994) developed concrete by Reactive Powder Concrete (RPCs) which attained strength ranging from 200 to 800 MPa using nano-particles.

One of the most beneficial application using nano-particles in concrete is producing high-compressive strength concrete equivalent to rock hardness for special applications such as filling the annular space surround instrumentation packages previously placed in drilled bore-holes.

The nano-particles used with fly ash concrete provides more environment friendly cleaner concrete with early high strength of concrete than normal fly ash concrete, which is also economical (Said et al. 2009). Moreover, mitigating problems that face Ferrocement construction (a thin wall reinforced concrete) is another application by Hosseini et al. (2010).

The main and most most important constructions that are benefitted from nanotechnology are:

1) Construction materials with ultra high performance (high durability, high ductility and high strength) such as steel, concrete, polymers and self healing structural composites

2) Embedded structural sensors that could be used for health and moisture content monitoring such as MEMS and intelligent aggregates.

3) New coatings such as self cleaning and corrosion protection coatings.

4) New structural design for infra structures incorporating strong materials with ultrahigh Ductility.

5) New tools that can be used to recognize nano-structure of construction composites behavior.