Posted on 11/29/2021 10:14:17 PM PST by SunkenCiv
bookmark
Thx.
Bookmark for stuff I love to read about, but physics was not my shiny subject. So.. fun rabbit hole read for a rainy day.
I’m sure that will work great on the roads in Detroit (inside joke, unless you’ve driven on them).
An intentional turn of phrase?
It's not the thing I usually want to read about cement used in buildings. Just ask the condo owners in Miami.
-PJ
Gonna need more concrete.
Is this an updated form of the ‘cold fusion’ delusion?
Imagine construction workers cutting into those slabs of concrete and the nano carbon fiber dust being inhaled causing greater lung problems than asbestos could ever dream of. And since it would be piezoelectric, the government (NSA) would have instant access to every conversation you had, a wired connection to all electronics touching the structure physically and mechanically through pressure waves.
“Well, to make it generate electricity, you’d have to hit it...”
Would think so, but any slightest movement would probably do it. Vibration, flexing from wind, expansion and contraction from temps, compression from weight, Etc.
Must be some rock solid research................
In the 70s I was a field tech in the Wall St. area and was constantly in and out of different offices. I learned early on how to protect myself from shocks when grabbing doorknobs after walking across carpet. You would just graze the back of your knuckles along the painted metal door frame first. Evidently it allowed a slow enough bleed-off of the charge to not be felt.
“...the material could also be used to design self-sensing systems that monitor the structural health and predict the remaining service life of concrete structures without any external power.”
Ok, now they can quietly add other types of sensors at many desired locations for equally desriable purposes. In other words, the walls/floors can listen to you! Minute vibrations from sound waves can flex the crystals and be captured.
Oh, yeah. Footsteps are going to smelt aluminum.
After the solar roadways project made all these claims that they were basically ready to start manufacturing their solar roadway panels... turns out, that merely 4 years ago, the thought it would take ~50 million USD.
This is ignoring all the other issues they had:
- no functional road surface
- no plan for road manufacture
- no cost realistic plans for implementation of power transport systems.
Solar Roadways: Busted! | July 15, 2014 | Thunderf00t
Only proven in the lab so far. Real time scale of requirements may not pan out as a useful electricity generator application.
Yeah, I'm not optimistic about this. Looks like some good old fashioned pure research made possible by the manufactured concern about AGW.
# Ok, now they can quietly add other types of sensors at many desired locations for equally desriable purposes. In other words, the walls/floors can listen to you! Minute vibrations from sound waves can flex the crystals and be captured.
Yup. This.
This is an interesting idea, and I as I’m sure many others have, on a rainy day, considered the idea of having roads that could generate their own power that could be used for some purpose, like, perhaps, powering streetlights.
However, a concept demonstrate in laboratory conditions does not a useful product make. Many questions immediately come to mind.
How much does it cost to add this to concrete?
How much power per square foot (or perhaps you’ look it as linear feet in a roadway) does it produce? If it takes 100 cars passing over a given 100’ of roadway to power a 15-watt LED, it’s likely not incredibly useful regardless of the cost.
How is the power generated? Thermal? Compression? Movement?
Does the method of generation steal energy from passing vehicles, or is it energy that would otherwise be wasted? If the former, you’re just robbing Peter to pay Paul, which makes the entire exercise useless. If the latter, then perhaps it might make sense.
Let’s say for the moment that it’s using compression to generate some amount of electricity that is then stored in a capacitor, which in turn dumps the power to a battery or something.
How deep are the carbon fibers (CF) embedded in the concrete? What happens when you get a crack in the concrete? Does that sever the CF as well? Would that mean the entire 100’ segment would no longer be able to generate power? While CF has a great deal of strength, I don’t believe it has much, if all elasticity. Cracks would be a serious danger to them.
Perhaps the concrete embedded with CF could be used as substrate overlayed with asphalt. In that case, would you have to take special precautions when resurfacing a road?
Going from the lab to the real world is a huge leap, and these and many, many more questions would have to be asked, answered, and engineered for.
Another interesting thought IMO, would be could you engineer something like this into tires without compromising their operation. Tires naturally flex while rotating. Normally this energy is wasted as heat. If it could instead provide some current, that would be beneficial if it was also economic in it’s manufacture.
Wonder if my driveway would generate enough power to keep itself clear of ice??
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