1. Human urine could help make concrete on moon, says European Space Agency  Times Now
2. Human urine could be used to make concrete on moon in the future  Economic Times
3. Ever thought of urine for lunar concrete?  NEWS9 live
4. You Can Now Buy a Piece of the Moon for $2.5 Million  Beebom
5. European Space Agency: Human urine could help make concrete on Moon  The New Indian Express
6. View Full coverage on Google News

The international community should call time on all remaining holdouts who have yet to implement internationally agreed tax transparency standards, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría said in a new report to the G20.

Using high-strength concrete in construction could help to reduce its impact on the environment, according to a study by French researchers. The researchers compared the environmental impacts of bridges built from ordinary and high-strength concrete and found that the high-strength solution had a lower impact on the environment overall.

A new concrete-reinforcement system, used by the LIFE INSU-SHELL1 project, replaces steel rods with non-corrosive textile structures to reduce the amount of concrete needed in construction. This nearly halves the global warming potential of traditional steel-reinforced concrete which is the largest producer of CO2 emissions in the building industry.

Higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and temperatures under climate change are likely to increase the rate of corrosive damage in reinforced concrete structures, according to a recent study. This could result in costly repairs in the future, unless structures are suitably adapted.

When assessing the environmental impacts of new ‘green’ concretes, care should be taken to ensure that a range of impacts are considered, such as ecosystem damage and water depletion, rather than a sole focus on CO2 emissions, a recent study concludes. It demonstrates that cement incorporating industrial by-products performs substantially better than Portland cement when rated across several classifications of environmental impact.

Concrete and asphalt's environmental impact could be reduced by over a third through changes to manufacturing processes and the use of alternative raw materials, according to research. A scenario study based on life cycle analysis has indicated that using alternative types of cement in concrete and producing asphalt at lower temperatures could substantially improve the green credentials of these two common building materials.

Some types of bacteria show the potential to act as self-healing agents in concrete, according to a recent study. This could make the construction material more durable and therefore more sustainable.

Daniel Ballou separates the working parts from the heavy parts to make a speaker system out of concrete blocks.

Housing charity New Story teams with 3-D printing startup ICON to fabricate 100 affordable and innovative abodes in El Salvador.

Polished concrete flooring is resistant, requires little maintenance, is easy to clean and will maintain its luster for years, even with high traffic.

There have been over 200,000 deaths as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. All have been tragic, but there are two people in particular we’ve lost due to COVID that were part of the world of architecture and design that we want to honor with a couple of stories today. First, we are mourning the loss of architect Michael McKinnell. Along with Gerhard Kallman, McKinnell designed the unforgettable Boston City Hall, completed in 1968. They won the commission for Boston City Hall after submitting their brutalist, heroic monument in a contest when Michael McKinnell was just 26 years old. It was always a controversial structure, much of the public found it ugly and too unconventional, but architects and critics tend to love it. This is the often the case with Brutalism in general and that is the subject of our first story starring Boston City Hall.

Another voice who is gone too early was Michael Sorkin. Sorkin was a designer and the Village Voice architecture critic in the 80s. He brought a totally new kind of approach to writing about buildings, one that focused on people and politics. We spoke with design critic at Curbed, Alexandra Lange, about Sorkin's work, and Roman Mars reads excerpts from one of his pieces called Two Hundred and Fifty Things an Architect Should Know.

The Smell of Concrete After Rain

October 2012—When you hear the word “ecosystem,” what comes to mind? A forest? A river, maybe? Well, how about a city? It turns out, the green spaces in our urban areas can offer a range of ecosystem services, just like forests and rivers. Station scientists are working to better understand cities as ecosystems and demonstrate how nearby nature provides important benefits and services. (4:19)

We present results showing the capability of concrete-based information processing substrate in the signal classification task in accordance with in materio computing paradigm. As the Reservoir Computing is a suitable model for describing embedded in materio computation, we propose that this type of presented basic construction unit can be used as a source for "reservoir of states" necessary for simple tuning of the readout layer. In that perspective, buildings constructed from computing concrete could function as a highly parallel information processor for smart architecture. We present an electrical characterization of the set of samples with different additive concentrations followed by a dynamical analysis of selected specimens showing fingerprints of memfractive properties. Moreover, on the basis of obtained parameters, classification of the signal waveform shapes can be performed in scenarios explicitly tuned for a given device terminal.

The present weed reducing material reduces the necessary weed control work by making joint filling sand a hostile substrate for plant and fungus growth by using an environmentally acceptable slow release mineral additive. The additive, having similar grain size distribution, mechanical and rheological properties, forms an integral part of the joint filling sand. The specific gravity of the additive is lower than quartz sand imparting a tendency for the additive to migrate towards the top part of the joint. The additive leads to pore waters rich in sodium and at high pH, both qualities being maintained over long periods. The mixture of additive and sand is handled and applied using conventional laying techniques and equipment, observing usual precautions for mortar or cement mixes with sand. In the environment, reaction with CO2 in the air or in the soil porosity inactivates the causticity, yielding harmless carbonate salts.

An auxiliary member for pavement construction, including: a cylinder, a base plate and a leveling bolt; the cylinder includes a first cylinder part and a second cylinder part which are connected and communicated with each other, the first cylinder part is provided with a sling installing member and a slurry inlet, bottom of the second cylinder part is connected with the base plate, the base plate is provided with a bolt extending hole and multiple slurry discharging holes which are communicated with the inner cavity of the second cylinder part, the leveling bolt includes a bolt head and a screw, the screw extends through the bolt extending hole, the bolt head is arranged in the second cylinder part and the bolt head is smaller than the inner diameter of the second cylinder part. The present invention further provides a concrete slab and a method for pavement construction.

A concrete finishing machine includes a mobile frame supported above the slab on front and rear wheels with at least one screed roller and a plurality of vibrators are suspended from the frame between the front and rear wheels. The front and rear wheels are rotatable at least ninety degrees between a longitudinally directed traveling orientation and a laterally directed concrete finishing orientation. The front and rear wheels are driven and steerable so that the mobile frame may travel longitudinally down a lane of a road, and then upon pivoting of the wheels, move laterally over a hole in an adjacent lane having uncured concrete to be finished by the finishing machine.

An apparatus and method to install contraction joints in concrete slabs. The method uses a device, which inserts a strip of plastic or paper tape into freshly laced concrete, as the device is driven across a concrete slab. The tape is folded immediately prior to being inserted into freshly placed concrete, and functions to weaken the slab at the contraction joint location for the purpose of causing a crack to form in the slab. Plastic tape can be used, which functions as a moisture vapor retarder, and thereby, protects floor coverings from moisture damage, such as mold and mildew, at contraction joint locations.

Pressure relief/drainage valve for a concrete pumper having a valve body with an axially extending passageway through which concrete flowing in a pumping line passes, an outlet port in a side wall of the passageway, and a valve member which prevents concrete from passing through the port when the valve is a closed position and permits concrete to discharge through the outlet port when the valve is in an open position.

A raw batch composition for concrete or concrete wherein the raw batch composition comprises Portland cement of about 15 wgt. % to about 45 wgt. % and dune sand preferably red dune sand is present in an amount of about 40 wgt. %. The dune sand has a particle size of less than or equal to 45 microns. The composition also includes limestone powder ranging from about 15 wgt. % to 45 wgt. % with particle sizes less than or equal to 45 microns to form a base material. To this base material suitable amounts of fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, water and superplasticizer are added. A method for producing a cast concrete product having a compressive strength of between 62 MPa and 90 MPa is disclosed. The method comprises a step of providing Portland cement, dune sand and limestone powder.

A dynamic concrete form includes a sleeve defining a passage extending between first and second open ends. A first attachment feature extends outwardly in a first direction from the sleeve at the first open end and a second attachment feature extends outwardly in a second direction that is opposite the first direction at the second open end. In a first position, the passage has a first axial length, the first open end lies in a first plane, and the second open end lies in a second plane. In a second position, the passage has a second axial length that is greater than the first axial length, the first open end lies in the first plane or a first new plane that is parallel to the first plane, and the second open end lies in the second plane or a second new plane that is parallel to the second plane.

An insulated concrete form including of first and second spaced sidewalls forming a cavity therebetween, said sidewalls having an inside surface and interconnected by a plurality of form ties, and a form insert made of an insulative material positioned adjacent the inside surface of at least one sidewall which thereby increases the R-value of the resulting structure.

The present invention is directed to a flexible concrete form system having both flexible and rigid parts that are easily assembled and disassembled using a multi-contact point connection system. The concrete form system can be extended or stacked in a wide variety of configurations to accommodate almost any desired concrete shape.

The present invention discloses a method and a forming system that reduces the hydrostatic pressure caused by casting freshly mixed concrete or other cementicious material into vertical forms. Reducing the hydrostatic pressure in forms enables relatively weak materials to be used as form boards and minimizes the amount of bracing necessary to support the form boards—both of which lead to lower construction costs. The method uses the highly thixotropic properties of no-slump or low-slump concrete which enable the concrete to be quickly changed from a semi-solid state to a liquid and back to a semi-solid state numerous times before it hardens and without affecting the concrete's quality. Since hydrostatic pressure is only present when a liquid state exists, minimizing the amount of liquid concrete in vertical forms will also minimize the hydrostatic pressure present.

A fixed form suitable for use in framing concrete with arches is described as is an adjustable form and a system for forming concrete. The fixed form has an arch with a fixed radius terminating at arch ends. At least one frame element is attached to the arch wherein the frame element terminates at an arch end at a frame face and the frame face is perpendicular to a tangent of the arch at the arch end. The adjustable form has an adjustable radius.

A concrete side form system suitable for factory casting or site casting concrete. The side form includes a substantially rigid longitudinally extending wall. The wall has a first face to define the edge profile of a concrete panel poured onto a casting bed bounded by the wall and a second face opposite the first face having formation to enable the wall to be secured to the casting bed. The wall includes a longitudinally extending frame having formation along at least one of its edges to removably receive a removable longitudinal insert to provide a shape along an edge of the concrete panel. The removable inserts provide the system with the ability to simply, easily and cost effectively change the edge profile of concrete poured against the side form.

A method for demolding concrete blocks which are cast in a resilient mold supported in a rigid frame, the mold having a top surface and at least one cavity with an opening on the top surface, which cavity holds a cured cast concrete block. The mold has two opposing edges. The demolded blocks are stacked on a collection surface. A support is positioned over the cavity and the mold, the support and the frame are inverted and positioned in demolding apparatus. After two opposing edges of the mold are engaged by the demolding apparatus, the support is withdrawn to allow the mold to sag. The blocks may release from the mold and fall onto the collection surface. If any blocks remain in the mold, a plunger mechanism is pushed against the sagging mold to release the blocks. Guide members may facilitate positioning the blocks on the collection surface.

A system for accelerated manufacturing of concrete modular housing units including a first deck platform including a plurality of exterior movable wall forms. A second deck platform including a plurality of exterior movable wall forms. A first concrete slab is placed on the first deck platform. At least one core including a plurality of core walls placed on the first concrete slab. The exterior movable wall forms of the first deck platform are positioned proximate the core walls to define a wall space there between configured to receive wet concrete and create a first concrete modular housing unit. A second concrete slab is placed on the second deck platform. Wet concrete in the wall space is allowed to set a until it is partially cured and then the at least one core is removed from the first concrete slab and placed on the second concrete slab such that the at least one core can be reused one or more times during a predetermined amount of time to create a least a second concrete modular housing unit while the first concrete modular housing unit is still curing.

A tie system and method for forming a wall from a hardenable building material. In one embodiment, the tie system includes multiple ties configured to be directly interconnected into a vertically extending tie stack such that multiple tie stacks can be positioned over a footing in a spaced apart arrangement. The multiple tie stacks are configured to extend substantially perpendicular between substantially parallel panel structures. Each tie stack includes one or more base members and one or more wall ties, each of which directly attach to each other in a vertically stacked arrangement.

A holding assembly is formed of a base having two primary support edges and two locking fingers. A cutting assembly is formed of a platform, a cutting band, and a plurality of rollers rotatable with respect to the platform for guiding the cutting band in a path of travel above the base. An advancement assembly is formed of rails coupled to and extending upwardly from the base. Slide blocks extend downwardly from the platform for advancing the platform and cutting band. Control components include pneumatic pivot pistons mounted on the base operable to move the fingers between operative and inoperative orientations, a pneumatic advancement piston for advancing and retracting the platform, and a hydraulic motor for rotating a roller to move the cutting band.

A concrete saw is disclosed having a rigid metal frame, a hydraulic drive system, a water-cooled hub, and an axially rotatable trigger assembly comprising a 12 volt switch. The saw may include a hydraulic pump operable to supply pressurized hydraulic fluid to the drive system. In some embodiments, the saw may includes a flow sharing valve fluidly coupled to the hydraulic drive system to distribute the pressurized hydraulic fluid from the a hydraulic pump in a portable power pack. A method of removing trip hazards with the saw is also disclosed.

Presented is a concrete saw for sawing into concrete surfaces to provide expansion slots or joints. The concrete saw has powered front wheels and may optionally have powered rear wheels, so that with improved traction the full potential of the motor can be utilized in faster cutting of concrete.

A hybrid concrete saw includes a saw blade, an internal combustion engine having an output shaft operably connected to the saw blade, and an electric motor connectable to a battery for receiving power therefrom and having an output shaft operably connected to the saw blade. A transmission is connected to the output shaft of each of the engine and the electric motor and the saw blade. A clutch selectively decouples one of the engine and the electric motor from the transmission. A controller controls operation of the engine and the electric motor. The concrete saw is operable in a first mode where the saw blade is driven solely by the engine, a second mode where the saw blade is driven solely by the electric motor, and a third mode where the saw blade is driven by both the engine and the electric motor.

A saw apparatus for sawing paving slabs has a frame mounted on a ground contacting propulsion member such that the frame may move above a slab to be cut without touching the slab. A first saw support assembly disposes a blade of a saw in cutting engagement with the slab for a transverse cut. A second saw support assembly disposes a blade of another saw in cutting engagement with the slab for a longitudinal cut. The saws are mounted on the saw assemblies and the saw assemblies are mounted on the frame and the frame is mounted on the ground contact propulsion members such that no part of said frame need contact the slab during cutting.

A method, apparatus and system for testing the self-sealing properties of a concrete sample. The method may include providing an apparatus for creating a consistent and reproducible crack in a concrete sample and creating a consistent and reproducible crack in the concrete sample with the apparatus. The method may further include providing a fluidic delivery system that provides a consistent flow of fluid for testing the self-sealing properties of the concrete sample and testing the self-sealing properties of the concrete sample with the system.

A conveyor roller includes a roller body that defines a fill cavity. A concrete material at least partially fills the fill cavity in the roller body. A bearing assembly is coupled to the roller body. The bearing assembly is configured to facilitate rotation of the roller body. The roller body acts as a mold to allow curing of the concrete material to occur even after final assembly of the conveyor roller. In one example of the manufacturing method, the concrete material is poured into one or more fill cavities inside the roller body, and bearing assemblies are attached to the opposite ends of the roller body. The concrete material can continue to cure even after the bearing assemblies are attached. In one example, the bearing assemblies act as plugs, thereby sealing the concrete material within the fill cavities of the roller body.

A method for manufacturing a protective concrete weight coating for pipelines The invention relates to materials for application to the outer surfaces of pipes as a protective negative buoyancy coating. It allows achieving accurately a desired density of the concrete protective weight coating of the pipeline in the range of 2600 to 3400 kg/m3 by claimed method of manufacturing a protective concrete weight coating for pipelines which includes mixing cement, aggregate, a plasticizing additive and water, pumping the resultant mixture into an annular space formed by the outer surface of a pipeline and a permanent form mounted with clearance thereon, and setting the resultant coating.

An apparatus for filling joints in precast concrete structures includes a core that has exceptionally low creep and conforms to ASTM D 1752 made of controlled particle size composites of recycled cellular rubber and plastic materials in the form of a rectangular slab. Holes are drilled through a central area and countersink recesses are formed around the holes. An outer coating of a thermoplastic polyurethane/polyurea elastomer system of a thickness of 0.075 inch covers the slab and countersink recesses. The coated core is abrasion and UV resistant while having the creep characteristics needed to make a dam expansion joint filler.

The utility model discloses a monolithic reinforced concrete piece for the construction of buildings which is characterized for having six columns arrange in a hexagonal distribution, a continuous beam with variable depth supported by the columns making six spans and forming a hexagonal perimeter viewed from top, a corbel fixed along the beam's external face, and a roof which has a hexagonal shape with a circular hole in the center in plan view and cambered in the elevation view which rest on the continuous beam. In use the reinforced concrete hexahedral module can be cast-in-place or pre-cast and transported to its final position on the construction site and used as part of a building defining the space and ambience of said building. This invention has the advantage of being safe, strong and reliable, providing a fast new method of construction for different kinds of buildings.

The present invention provides in one aspect for a bracket for use with insulated forms for concrete walls. The bracket has an attachment plate for overlying the exterior of the insulated form to provide for a means of attaching the header or rim joist to the bracket. The bracket is provided an anchoring plate extending from the attaching plate for insertion into the interior of the insulated form. The present invention also provides for a method of attaching a header or rim joist to a concrete wall formed using insulated forms. The method involves cutting a vertical slot in the insulated form and inserting a bracket into the slot. The bracket has an attachment plate for overlying the exterior surface of the insulated form and an anchoring plate extending from the attachment plate through the slot into the interior of the insulated form. Concrete is poured into the form and allowed to set, after which the header or rim joist is attached to the brackets.

I made a new website for my art practice, and, while my last show and newest work is textile-based, I thought MetaFilter might like my 2015 exhibition Screen Wall, featuring concrete breeze blocks I designed by (mis)using Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill.

I used Content-Aware Fill to create a large field of wonky-warpy screen wall block motifs and wrote a small PHP script to cut it into block-sized designs, which I traced in Illustrator and had water-jet cut from EVA, supplying both the mould materials and foam-rubber positives that visitors to the show could (and did) play with.

The show also included rubbings and photograms made using laser-cut bamboo tiles and an animation (strobe warning) consisting of 2000 image frames made using Audacity in place of an image editor.

Today the most of the blocks are in the gallery director's front yard (he also did the masonry), seen here, but I kept enough to make a rain barrel stand someday.

(Alternate secure link if that's an issue or if the domain isn't resolving for you yet)

[Link]

This is quite the elevated living experience: a seriously shiny, brand-new modern-and-maritime home designed to endure nature’s wildest mood swings.

Using materials available on site for a moon base or other construction would reduce the need to launch supplies from Earth.

Using materials available on site for a moon base or other construction would reduce the need to launch supplies from Earth.

A Sunshine Coast business defends its decision to dump concrete on a beach north of Noosa, as the Department of Environment launches an investigation into the matter.

UAE building giant Arabtec Construction has teamed up with Robert Bird Group, American University of Dubai (AUD) and local firm 3Dvincy Creations, to establish the AUD Center for 3D concrete printing & digital construction.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that California did not violate the Equal Protection Clause when it adopted a 2015 amendment that conferred prevailing-wage protections on delivery drivers of ready-mix concrete. Reversed a summary judgment decision in this case involving a law that guarantees a special minimum wage to workers employed on public-works projects.

Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is a highly flowable, nonsegregating concrete that is placed without any mechanical consolidation. TRB will conduct a webinar on Thursday, June 11, 2020, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Eastern to discuss how SCC may be used to fill heavily congested or irregularly shaped members in bridge applications more easily while providing improved in-place quality and surface finish.The use of SCC may also decrease construction costs due to the reduced labor requirements during construct...