Analysis and Design of Metamaterial Blocks with Self-sensing Concrete

Concrete plays an important role in infrastructure that stand the test of time. Developing concrete materials with advanced functionalities and mechanical tunability is critical in reimagining the conventional infrastructure systems. A new lightweight composite metamaterial concrete with remarkable mechanical properties along with sensing functionalities is introduced. The proposed self-sensing metamaterial concrete system is developed by integrating mechanical metamaterial and carbon nanotube enhanced concrete, forming reinforcement auxetic polymer lattices fully embedded inside a conductive cement matrix. Three patterns for polymer lattice are to be proposed as 3D drawings in the ‘SolidWorks’ software. The designs are intended to keep the concrete and lattice bonded in all possible loading conditions. Different polymers for lattice are analysed, considering their material properties and 3D printability. Most suitable design and material for lattice is to be finalised by ANSYS based validation procedure. Finalized design is 3D printed to form the mould. Self-sensing concrete enhanced with MWCNT is incorporated into the lattice to form the metamaterial-concrete block. This induces contact-electrification between its layers under mechanical excitations. Furthermore, the sensing functionality of the concrete systems for health monitoring of large-scale concrete structures is explored. This system can be applied as building base isolators, machine vibration isolators, shock absorbent bike lane pavement and runway pavement to decelerate aircraft in short length. The metamaterial self-sensing concrete paradigm can enable design of smart infrastructure systems with advanced functionalities.