SMART MATERIALS

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION – MODULE 5

ZAKEE ULFATH 4SN16AT057
 DEFINITION OF SMART MATERIALS APPLICATIONS OF SMART MATERIALS IN ARCHITECTURE

• Smart materials are engineered materials which are able to provide a

unique beneficial response when a particular change occurs in its
surrounding environment.
• They are high technological materials that when placed in a building they
respond intelligently to the climatic changes, in different climatic
condition. The term “Smart materials” is applicable to materials and
systems that can responsively react to change interior environments
through material properties or material synthesis.

BENEFITS OF USING SMART MATERIALS IN ARCHITECTURE

1. Superior strength, toughness, and ductility.
2. Enhanced durability/service life.
3. Increased resistance to abrasion, corrosion, chemicals, and fatigue.
4. Initial and life-cycle cost efficiencies.
5. Improved response to extreme events such as natural disasters and fire.
6. Ease of manufacture and application or installation.
7. Aesthetics and environmental compatibility.
8. Ability for self-diagnosis, self-healing, and structural control.
SMART CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
• SMART CONCRETE
The concrete is itself a sensor of strain or stress.
The sensing ability is not due to that concrete has been modified through the
use of admixtures so it becomes a sensor, without the admixtures, the
sensing ability is poor. Short carbon fibers are added to the conventional
concrete mixture, this modification gives the concrete the ability to detect
stress and tiny deformations in the concrete.
In the presence of structural flaws - within a levee made of smart concrete,
for example - the concrete's electrical resistance increases. This change can
be detected by electrical probes placed on the outside of structures.
Similarly, the electrical properties of smart concrete could be used to detect
underground stress that builds prior to an earthquake, to monitor building
occupancy for intruders or for stragglers during an evacuation, and to
monitor traffic flow in an emergency or around borders
 SMART CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
1. SMART BRICKS
Bricks stuffed with sensors, signal processors and wireless communication
links warning about hidden stresses, or damage in the aftermath of natural
calamities like earthquakes, storms or hurricanes.
A variety of additional sensors depending on the application, such as
sensors for detecting moisture, humidity, sound, chemicals, stress, force, and SMART NON-CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
so forth. Built into a wall, the brick could monitor a building’s temperature,
vibration, and movement. 3. SMART GLASS
Sensor node could be used in fire curtain walls found in stairwells to send Smart glass is a category of glazing materials that changes its light-control
information regarding the safety of building exits during a fire. properties in reaction to an external stimulus, known also as switchable
glazing, dynamic glazing and chromogenic, smart glass is a relatively new
category of high performing glazing with significant clean technology
characteristics. It can be used in a wide range of everyday products such as
windows, doors, skylights, partitions, sun roofs, sun visors and more.

2. SMART WRAP
The Smart Wrap concept will deliver shelter, climate control, lighting,
information display and power with a printed and layered polymer
composite. Smart Wrap as a futuristic building material could replace all
existing interior and exterior wall materials.
The ultrathin, ultra-light material consists of 6 layers; an applied layer of
carbon nanotubes that gives it rigidity, four organic “smart” layers that
change the appearance of your house, control circuitry, change material for
thermal regulation, provide environmentally-friendly and inexpensive power
to the wall and to the whole building or other application, and a PEN/PET
substrate that holds them all together and protects them from the
elements. The benefits from using such potential technology applications
could, allow a person to program and reconfigure his house quickly and
inexpensively to suit his changing needs, tastes, and fashions,
be portable, save enormously on heating/cooling/lighting energy and provide
it with renewable solar sources, eliminate the need for environmentally
destructive, bulky and building materials.
4. SMART GREEN ROOFS
Conventional uses of green roofs aim at improving the heat island effect,
storm water management, air quality, and energy conservation.
However, insulation is needed to keep heat out when it is too hot outdoors
or to keep heat inside when it is too cold outdoors. A smart ventilation
system that improves thermal performance by coupling or uncoupling the
thermal mass as necessary is proposed .
To achieve this system has an insulated plenum in which a fan is activated by
temperature based rules. When the fan is on the plenum is ventilated and
when it is turned off the ceiling acts as an insulator. However, the fan needs
to be more powerful so that this effect is transferred to the rest of the cell.
 NANO-TECHNOLOGY NANO TECHNOLOGY IN STEEL
• The development of very durable, long-lived extremely lightweight • Fatigue is a significant issue that can lead to the structural failure of steel
construction materials. subject to cyclic loading, such as in bridges or towers.
• Novel insulation materials enable a thermal rehabilitation of buildings • Stress risers are responsible for initiating cracks from which fatigue
help improve energy efficiency. failure results.
• Treatment of surfaces including glass, masonry, wood or metal improves • Addition of copper nanoparticles reduces the surface unevenness of
functionalities ,extend the lifetime of the materials, conserve resources, steel which then limits the number of stress risers.
for example water, energy and cleaning agents.
NANO-PRODUCTS :
1. Cement-bound construction materials,
2. Noise reduction and thermal insulation or temperature regulation,
3. Surface coatings to improve the functionality of various materials,
4. Fire protection.
NANOTECHNOLOGY
1. Aerogel 2.Nanotubes 3.Nano pores 4.Nano particles
APPLICATIONS OF NANO-TECHNOLOGY IN BUILDING INDUSTRY
Nano technology is widely used in the following construction materials: NANO TECHNOLOGY IN WOOD
Concrete, Steel, Wood, Glass, Coating, Fire resistance, Structural monitoring
• Wood is also composed of nano tubes or nano fibrils namely,
• NANO TECHNOLOGY IN CONCRETE lignocellulose (wood tissue) elements which are twice as strong as steel.
• Nano technology can modify the structure of concrete material and finally • Researchers have developed a highly water repellent coating based on the
improves in properties such as Bulk density, Mechanical performance, actions of the lotus as result of the incorporation of silica and alumina
Volume stability, Durability and Sustainability of concrete nano particles and hydrophobic polymers
• Addition of nano particles could compensate for its weakness in tension
and result in concrete with greatly improved stress strain behavior .
• The addition of nano silica can improve the durability of concrete
structures exposed to de-icing salts.