3 ms·
What’s cool about this is could it save the cost of making expansion joints? Edit. What I mean is you could do really big pours instead of sections. Think a mi
by mrfusion 7y ago
What’s cool about this is could it save the cost of making expansion joints?
Edit. What I mean is you could do really big pours instead of sections. Think a mile long sidewalk with no sections.
- jacobush 7y agoBut you would need a long queue of cement trucks :)
- munk-a 7y agoI don't believe so - those expansion joints exist IIRC to account for the fact that cement is quite temperature volume stable... but it isn't temperature inert. The seasonal temperature swings cause expansion and shrinking of cement and, especially on the scale of a bridge, those slight volume changes add up. I imagine this tech would allow shrinkage during the winter to be automatically repaired if it manifested as hairline gaps - but when summer rolled around you'd get a severe amount of buckling the cement expanded... then those buckles might partially repair - be reinforced when gaping occurred in winter - then buckle even more come next summer.
- jessriedel 7y agoI don't think so. It takes weeks for this cement to heal itself, whereas the sort of temperature swings that would cause very long pieces to crack happen in hours. You'd have frequent cracking and re-cracking without enough time to heal. I think this is better suited for damage from infrequent events (earthquakes, temperature swings from 10-year storms, human accident, etc.).