TRANSLUCENT CONCRETE

1. TRANSLUCENT CONCRETE By-- ShubhamJaiswal

2. CONTENTS • INTRODUCTION • MATERIAL USED FOR TRANSLUCENT CONCRETE • PRINCIPLE • MANUFACTURING PROCESS • APPLICATIONS • ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES • CONCLUSION • REFERENCES

3. INTRODUCTION • Translucent concrete is a concrete based building material having light-Transmissive property. • Light-Transmissive property is mainly due to uniform distribution of high numerical aperture Plastic Optical Fibres (POF) throughout its body. • Hence it is also known to be transparent concrete, LiTraCon.

4. MATERIAL USED FOR TRANSLUCENT CONCRETE • The two basic materials used for making transparent concrete • Fine concrete • Optical fibres • Fine concrete: Consists of cement and fine aggregate such as sand. • Optical fibres: There are 3 kinds • Multimode graded-index fibre • Multimode step-index fibre • Single-mode step-index fibres.

5. PRINCIPLE • Translucent concrete works Based on “Nano-Optics”. • These fibres passes as much light when tiny slits are placed directly on top of each other. Hence optical fibers in the concrete act like the slits and carry the light across throughout the concrete.

6. MANUFACTURING PROCESS • The manufacturing process of transparent concrete is almost same as regular concrete. • Small layers of the concrete are poured into the mould and on top of each layers, a layer of fibres is infused. • Fabric and concrete are alternately inserted into moulds at intervals of approximately 2 mm to 5mm.

7. MANUFACTURING PROCESS • Light-transmitting concrete is produced by adding 4% to 5% optical fibres by volume into the concrete mixture. • The concrete mixture is made from fine materials and does not contain coarse aggregate. • Thousands of strands of optical fibres are cast into concrete to transmit light • Smaller or thinner layers allow an increased amount of light to pass through the concrete.

8. MANUFACTURING PROCESS • The casted 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.

9. APPLICATIONS • Transparent concrete blocks suitable for floors, pavements and load-bearing walls. • Facades, interior wall cladding and dividing walls based on thin panels. • Partitions wall and it can be used where the sunlight does not reach properly.

10. APPLICATIONS • In furniture for the decorative and aesthetic purpose. • Light sidewalks at night. • Increasing visibility in dark subway stations. • Lighting indoor fire escapes, in the event of a power failure. • Illuminating speed bumps on roadways at night.

11. ADVANTAGES • Energy saving can be done by utilization of transparent concrete in building. • It has very good architectural properties for giving good aesthetical view to the building.

12. DISADVANTAGES • The concrete is very costly because of the optical fibres. • Casting of transparent concrete block is difficult for the labour so special skilled person is required.

13. CONCLUSION • Transparent concrete can be developed by adding optical fibre or large diameter glass fibre in the concrete mixture. • It has good light guiding property and the ratio of optical fibre volume to concrete is proportionate to transmission of light. • It doesn’t loose the strength parameter when compared to regular concrete and also it has very vital property from the aesthetic point of view. • This new kind of building material can integrate the concept of green energy saving

14. REFERENCES • Victoria Bailey, “Translucent Concrete”, MEEN • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translucent_concrete • wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber • byen.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiTraCon • www.litracon.hu/

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