III. Nano-/micro-structural Study - Principle Tool of Nano-AIMS Lab.
"Relationships between micro-structure and material properties are at the heart of modern material science"
P. Mehta and Paulo J. M. Monteiro
3.1. The Importance of Nano-/micro-structural Study
To improve the current state of concrete technology, two essential achievements are prerequisite: (1) achieving a significant enhancement of engineering properties of concrete, resulting in much less consumption of concrete for equivalent construction purposes, and (2) a better understanding of mechanisms in concrete deterioration at nanostructural scale, leading to durable designs of concrete structures with longer lifespans and to development of effective repairing remedies.
3.2. Microstructure Analysis of Building Materials
Unfortunately, old-fashioned macro-scale approaches (e.g., simply mixing of randomly chosen materials, followed by conducting strength tests, and then simply reporting what happened in the test results without understanding of background mechanisms; surprisingly, this is often happening), employed in many construction material research institutes, are hardly able to achieve any of these solutions because most material properties are determined at nanostructural scales. Significant improvement can be made by micro- and nano-structural studies, which have been relatively rare in the areas of civil engineering.
Therefore, nanostructural studies for construction materials should be conducted together with conventional macro-scale studies, and this approach requires extensive collaborations with chemistry, environmental science, materials science, and advanced computer modeling, along with use of national laboratories (e.g., synchrotron radiation facilities).