LIGHT TRANSMITTING CONCRETE

LIGHT TRANSMITTING CONCRETEPresented By,BASSI DEEPCHAND

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY

PRINCIPLE

FABRICATION OF TRANSPARENT CONCRETE

EXPERIMENTS ON LIGHT TRANSMITTING CONCRETE

TECHNICAL DETAILS

PROPERTIES

ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES

AWARDS

INTRODUCTION

Light transmitting concrete is made of fine concrete embedded with 4% by weight of optical glass fibers.

Due to the small size of the fibers, they blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of aggregate.

It can be produced as prefabricated building blocks and panels.

HISTORY

In 2001, the concept of transparent concrete is first put forward by Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi.

Losonczi developed and completed the initial prototype of LiTraCon as a post-graduate fellow in Stockholm Royal University School of Architecture.

The first Transparent concrete block is successfully produced by mixing large amount of glass fiber into concrete in 2003, and named as LiTraCon, working with scientists at theTechnical university of Budapest.

LiTraCon is manufactured by the inventor's company, LiTraCon Bt, which was founded in 2004.

The most notable installation of it to date isEurope Gate- a 4 m high sculpture made of LiTraCon blocks, erected in 2004 in observance of the entry of Hungary into the European Union.

Joel S. and Sergio O.G. developed a transparent concrete material, which can allow 80% light through and only 30% of weight of common concrete

Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi at the Europe Gate

PRINCIPLE

The main idea of the transparent concrete is that high numerical aperture optical fibers are directly arranged in the concrete, and the optical fiber is used as sensing element and optical transmission element.

Thousands of optical fibers are organized into thin layers and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of each block.

Because of their parallel position, the light-information on the brighter side of such a wall appears unchanged on the darker side.

Configuration of transparent concrete (LiTraCon)

FABRICATION OF TRANSPARENT CONCRETE (LiTraCon)

Light-transmitting concrete is produced by adding 4% to 5% optical fibers (by volume) into the concrete mixture.

As light can transmit in the optical fiber, different shape of smart transparent concretes can be fabricated and a certain amount of optical fibers are regularly distributed in the concrete.

These fibers mingle in the concrete because of their small size, and they become a structural component as a kind of modest aggregate.

Plastic optical fiber is an excellent media to transmit light at specific wavelengths which has been widely used in illuminating facility or architectural appearance lighting

The fabrication process of standard transparent concrete block can be described as follows

According to the volume ratio of concrete and POF, some holes with orthogonal arrays are drilled in the plastic sheet

POFs are through the holes of two plastic sheets which are fixed on the slots of wood formwork shown as figure1.

Fabric and concrete are alternately inserted into molds at intervals of approximately 2 mm to 5 mm

Fig.1 Fabrication of transparent concrete (LiTraCon)

lastly certain concrete is poured in the formwork and fully vibrated on the shaking table

Thickness of the optical fibers can be varied between 2 m and 2 mm to suit the particular requirements of light transmission

Following casting, the material is cut into panels or blocks of the specified thickness and the surface is then typically polished, resulting in finishes ranging from semi-gloss to high-gloss.

Smaller or thinner layers allow an increased amount of light to pass through the concrete

Transparent demonstration of transparent concrete

SPECIFICATIONS

EXPERIMENTS ON LIGHT TRANSMITTING CONCRETE (LiTraCon)

To evaluate the effectiveness of the transparent concrete following properties are known by conducting tests

The light guiding property based on white light test.

Long-term durability based on freezing and thawing test and chloride ion penetration test.

Self-sensing property based on stress elasto-optic effect test are made respectively.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The transparent concrete has good transparency, mechanical and self-sensing properties.

The stress birefringence property of glass fiber make itself a good sensing element to measure the inner stress of transparent concrete

From the above three experiments, it can be seen that the stress state of glass fiber can reflect the stress state of concrete, which make the self-sensing property.

The concrete mixture is made from fine materials only it contains no coarse aggregate.

Contrary to LiTraCon, LiTraCon PXL is manufactured by replacing optical fibers by a specially formed and patented plastic unit.

PROPERTIESIt carries the same amount of light through a brick no matter how thick it

The light carried maintains its original color

Weighs about the same as conventional concrete

96% traditional aggregate and cement, 4% glass fibers

Can be manufactured in any color upon request

Normally sold in bricks

APPLICATIONS

Light transmitting concrete has already been used in a variety of structures

LiTraCon and LiTraCon pXL can be applied in several fields of design and architecture e.g. as stairs, window shade, inner partition wall or as a decorationelement in interior architecture.

LiTraCube ambient lamp is the very first own design product of the LiTraCon company, designed by the inventor.

DESKSLOGOS

Residential Architecture

Religious Architecture

One of LiTraCon's first public use was in a public square in Stockholm, Sweden. By day, the square's sidewalk looks as though it were made of ordinary concrete, but the transparent surface lights up at night when the colored lights beneath the surface illuminate.

Religious Architecture

ADVANTAGES

It Adds an interesting property to a strong material

Could take fiber optics in a new direction

It is a high density concrete

The compressive strength of greater than 70 MPa (over 10,000 psi) is comparable to that of high-strength concrete. However, due to the manufacturing process, elements for structural applications have not yet been produced.

ADVANTAGES

Optical fibers transmit light so effectively that there is virtually no loss of light conducted through the fibers; in fact, its even possible to see colors through the concrete.

Transparent concrete has the power to potentially transform the interior of concrete buildings, making them appear fresh, open and spacious.

Fibers do not have a negative effect on the high compressive strength value of concrete

The transparent concrete has good light guiding property.

DISADVANTAGES

The amount of optical fibers has seriously influences the compressive strength of the corresponding concrete. The much number the optical fibers are, the smaller the compressive strength is. So the transmissions can not endless increase by way of endless increasing the number of optical fibers in concrete.

The optical fibers have also reduced the anti-permeability of the concrete. Using the epoxy resin to seal the boundary of optical fibers and concrete, the transparent concretes anti-permeability can be greatly improved

AWARDS

The technology of concrete (LiTraCon) has received several awards like The Red Dot: Best of the Best 2005' Award.

LEAF Award 2006.

iF Material Award 2008.

And was also nominated for DESIGNPREIS 2006 award.

REFERENCE

INTERNET

http://www.nbmcw.com/articles/concrete/17991-transparent-concrete-litracon.html

http://www.litracon.hu/

http://www.cement.org/decorative/translucent.asp

http://www.archicentral.com/litracon-transparent-concrete-4379/

http://smc.hit.edu.cn/ancrisst2011/docs/full_paper/Full_paper_107.pdf

THANK YOU