Emerging Materials and Technologies for Next-Generation Sustainable and Resilient Polymer Concrete

Abstract

Emerging materials and technologies (EMTs) are introduced to improve the sustainability and resilience of infrastructure. Polymer concrete (PC) has been used for the last 80 years in infrastructure applications where extreme environmental conditions and exposures are dominant. We suggest that EMTs can enable the development of next-generation PC that can contribute to infrastructure resilience and sustainability. This paper presents an overview of the latest developments in using innovative PC by incorporating a myriad of EMTs to improve infrastructure resilience and sustainability. These EMTs include nanotechnology, bio-based polymers, 3D printing, and textile reinforcement. Using nanotechnology, we demonstrate the possible production of a PC with superior ductility and self-sensing capabilities. We also show that a bio-based polyurethane PC with appreciable compressive strength of 20 MPa can be produced. We demonstrate rheological testing of polymer concrete leading to innovative 3D printed polymer concrete structures. We finally show the ability to produce superior flexural load capacity and textile-reinforced PC (TRPC) ductility compared with cementitious textile-reinforced concrete (TRC). We conclude by demonstrating the potential production of 3D printed TRPC. We suggest that the EMTs will enable a quantum leap in using PC to produce sustainable and resilient infrastructure.