Transparent Concrete

rakerman writes: "The Economist reports in How to see through walls that development is underway on translucent concrete, with hopes of eventually developing transparent concrete. Can transparent aluminium be far behind?"

Comments

Re:I may as well say it....

[rehannan]

From the article:
He has visions of cities that glow from within, and buildings whose windows need not be flat, rectangular panes, but can be arbitrary regions of transparency within flowing, curving walls.

That sure sounds remarkably like Apple's philosophy...

Transparent aluminum

[digitalunity]

I seriously doubt we will ever see transparent aluminum. In order for it to succceed, the atoms would have to be aligned in a crystaline matrix. Such a matrix would likely create a hard, yet weak substance.

It would have much strength, yet it would fracture easily. Its called "Modulus of elasticity"; something certain steels(H11 namely) holds in spades. I doubt even if it could be produced, people would find it of much use.

Transparent building materials

[Hougaard]

The real problem with transparent building materials is that people inside want to control the transparency, just look at your own home, you got curtains and shades on all(most) windows.

A classic problem with new hightech buildings (Glass 'n metal) is climate control, its nice to be able to look outside, but if the sun is starring you right back its not that fun. So you tint the windows :)

The next problem is that in those buildings the light that gets through is not white light (sunlight) anymore, and working in that kind of buildings can cause depressions very similary to winter depressions.

Remember: Architects are just building nerds :)

Is it really concrete?

[Eminence]

Can material described in the article really be called "concrete"?

As it is written there its only resemblance to concrete is that it consists of coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and binding agent. But this is not a recipe for concrete only - also for other materials. Also, Dr. Price's secret material can't be poured or produced on site - one the main reasons of traditional concrete popularity. It would probably find its use in form of blocks of translucent material, that could be used to enhance possibilities for architects but what Dr. Price is trying to do is another building material, which is very interesting indeed but can hardly be called "concrete".

Re:Is it really concrete?

[Hal-9001]

From the story:

Technically, concrete is simply a mixture of three ingredients: big lumps of material called the coarse aggregate (such as gravel), smaller lumps called the fine aggregate (such as sand) and a binding agent, or cement, to glue it all together into a solid. So translucent concrete, in theory, should be fairly easy to make using bits of plastic or glass of various sizes, with some kind of transparent glue to act as a binding agent.

This sounds more like a composite than concrete to me. The Dictionary of Composite Materials Technology defines a composite as

A multiphase material formed from a combination of materials which differ in composition or form, remain bonded together, and retain their identities and properties. Composites maintain an interface between components and act in concert to provide improved specific or synergistic characteristics not obtainable by any of the original components acting alone. Composites include: (1) fibrous (composed of fibers, and usually in a matrix), (2) laminar (layers of materials), (3) particulate (composed of particles or flakes, usually in a matrix), and (4) hybrid (combinations of any of the above).

By this definition, "transparent concrete" is a particulate composite of plastic or glass, probably in a matrix of epoxy or resin. Concrete is also a composite by this definition, but despite what my civil engineering friends might try to tell me, that doesn't mean that all composites are concrete. ;-)

Glass

[Sprunkys]

and buildings whose windows need not be flat, rectangular panes, but can be arbitrary regions of transparency within flowing, curving walls.

Sorry, but that is already possible.
A researcher at the university of Delft has developed a way to create twisted glass allowing for twisted buildings.
A dutch article can be found here. Take a look at the images if you don't understand the text

Re:How to see through walls

[Digitalia]

And each window needs to be constructed elsewhere, shipped, and placed in a hole that is sunk in a wall after the wall is in place. In conrete construction, this entails a good deal of work to do successfully and the benefits to doing so are limited. In fact, in doing so, the insulative value of concrete is often lessened. By having a "window" of transparent concrete, our structure sacrifices less of its insulation and the work required to place them is lessened. Furthermore, transparent concrete would allow for even more artistic placement of windows in modern architecture, since the window could be load-bearing.

Even if the engineers only managed to make the concrete translucent, it would still be of some advantage.

Lens and the Sun

[Paul Johnson]

I can see a whole new collection of risks here, especially if there are any curved surfaces involved. At various times of the day a transparent product would focus the sun's rays into various hotspots. Some of these might be intense enough to cause burns or even fire. The lenses would not be terribly efficient, but they would be very large.

Paul.

Microsoft developing transparent concrete??

[LuckyPhil]

It's a conspiracy I tell you!!!

Microsoft have been developing transparent concrete for a while now..

fine aggregate = Windows CE
course aggregate = Windows ME
binding agent = Windows NT

Mix them all together and you get

Microsoft CE-ME-NT