510-933-6200         Sales & Support         Locations         Login

              
Contact Us
Swagelok Northern California
Menu
BUY NOW
Message Us
Digital montage (1)

Fluid Systems Engineering & Management Blog

by Swagelok Northern California

Bendable Concrete Inspired by Abalone Shells

by Jeff Hopkins, on 8/3/18 8:45 AM

Bendable concrete makes infrastructure safer, extends its service life and reduces maintenance costs and resource use

The Advanced Civil Engineering - Materials Research Lab at the University of Michigan has shown that it is possible to make concrete more bendable without fracturing. The UMich team borrowed ideas from mother-of-pearl (nacre), found on the inside of abalone seashells.

At the nanoscale, mother-of-pearl looks like a brick wall made from thin layers of aragonite (natural calcium carbonate) platelets with a “mortar” between them of a very elastic natural polymer. The UMich team mimicked this structure to invent a ductile concrete, engineered cementitious composite (ECC) which has 300 to 500 times more tensile strain capacity than normal concrete.

Read more from the article in The Michigan Engineer News Center →

Topics:Mission Critical

We perform under pressure

Your fluid systems can't fail—and they can't leak. That's why Swagelok Northern California offers mission critical solutions for the petrochem, semi, power, and oil and gas industries around the Bay Area and into NW Nevada. We manufacture and assemble reliable, customizable components that get the job done. Contact our team today to learn about custom solutions for your plant or refinery.

Swagelok Northern California
Fremont headquarters

3393 W Warren Ave
Fremont, CA 94538
Main tel: 510-933-6200
Email: Message us

Areas served by our fluid systems engineering company