Coal concrete – features of an innovative material

In the field of building materials, new items appear quite often and always arouse the interest of not only specialists, but also ordinary people planning the construction of a private house or renovation. In this article, our site of advice will tell you about such an innovative building material as coal concrete.

Coal concrete can be compared with the usual reinforced concrete. Only instead of metal reinforcement, carbon fiber is used in the material. Coal concrete was developed in Germany, at the Institute for Monolithic Construction, which operates at the Dresden Technical University. Coal concrete is significantly lighter than reinforced concrete and at the same time four times stronger than it.

The main feature of the material is the use of carbon fiber, non-woven fabric, which is produced on special knitting and stitching machines. One thread of such fabric is thinner than a human hair. And 50 thousand of these threads form a complex super-strong thread, which becomes the main one for carbon fiber textiles..

In practice, carbon fiber can be used to reinforce concrete structures in two ways:

1. Pouring into the formwork, about the features of which during the construction of monolithic buildings, the portal wrote in detail. In this case, carbon fiber reinforcement is mounted in the formwork, and then the prepared concrete solution is poured.
2. Layers. The carbon fiber fabric is inserted between the individual concrete layers. The procedure is carried out until the structure reaches the desired thickness.

Important! Carbon fiber does not rust, unlike metal reinforcement. Therefore, it is not necessary to pour it on top with a layer of concrete at least 2 centimeters thick. You can save on concrete mix.

Carbon concrete is used in two areas:

1. When renovating old buildings. This material can be used to strengthen supporting structures, floors, columns. According to experts, concrete with carbon fiber can save structures that would otherwise have to be demolished.
2. When building new buildings. Structures made of coal concrete are lighter than reinforced concrete ones. You can make thinner load-bearing walls, which will not be inferior in strength to reinforced iron.

In the future, the developers plan to launch the production of finished slabs and facade panels made of carbon concrete, which will speed up and facilitate the construction process from this material..

The only thing that is currently holding back the spread of coal concrete in the construction and reconstruction of buildings is the high cost of carbon fiber. According to experts, new material will be able to start displacing reinforced concrete in about 10 years, when the technology will be further developed and will be cheaper..