Conductive Concrete on Innovation Nation

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02/09/2017 Added

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Conductive concrete developed at the University of Nebraska was featured on CBS television's "Innovation Nation" on January 14, 2017. Clip provided courtesy Litton Entertainment for academic use.

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[00:00:00.560]Driving a car in snow is a skill that often
[00:00:03.509]goes against all common sense.
[00:00:05.811]You need to turn into a skid, instead of jerking
[00:00:08.589]the wheel to get out of it.
[00:00:10.120]In older cars, you pump the brakes,
[00:00:12.339]but in new cars, you slam on the brakes.
[00:00:15.331]One electrifying innovation is taking some
[00:00:17.840]of our winter driving worries away,
[00:00:20.211]and could be changing the rules of the road forever,
[00:00:23.149]here's Adam Yamaguchi to explain.
[00:00:27.669]When it snows, streets, highways,
[00:00:29.529]and bridges can become slick and dangerous.
[00:00:32.389]Obviously, keeping road surfaces above the freezing point
[00:00:35.409]of 32 degrees would help, but hardwiring millions of miles
[00:00:39.437]of streets and overpasses in the US for electrical heat
[00:00:42.627]would be next to impossible, and expensive.
[00:00:46.219]But an engineering professor at the University of Nebraska
[00:00:49.117]has come up with an innovative way to keep roads
[00:00:51.347]and bridges ice-free.
[00:00:53.506]And it starts at the very beginning, when the concrete
[00:00:55.976]used to build them is made.
[00:00:57.924]Conductive concrete is regular concrete
[00:01:00.357]with about 20 percent of electrically conductive
[00:01:03.645]materials in composition, which enables
[00:01:07.685]the conduction of electricity.
[00:01:10.930]I traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to meet
[00:01:12.673]Dr. Christopher Tuan, the man standing behind,
[00:01:15.704]and firmly on, conductive concrete.
[00:01:18.425]So what is concrete made of?
[00:01:20.455]Regular concrete contains limestone, sand,
[00:01:24.724]cement, and water.
[00:01:26.563]And what does conductive concrete contain?
[00:01:30.385]Regular concrete is not electrically conductive,
[00:01:33.191]so to make it conductive, you have to add
[00:01:36.535]some electrically conductive components,
[00:01:39.132]and what we add is steel shavings, and two types
[00:01:43.295]of steel fibers, and carbon particles.
[00:01:46.905]So these are highly electrically conductive.
[00:01:50.353]The mixing process is the same
[00:01:51.972]as standard concrete.
[00:01:53.433]You embed two steel rods in the conductive concrete,
[00:01:58.153]and you connect it to a power source,
[00:02:00.833]and the electricity will go through the conductive concrete.
[00:02:04.425]Conductive concrete itself is a heating element.
[00:02:07.364]Because of the resistance, it heats up,
[00:02:10.695]and the heat will propagate to the surface
[00:02:12.945]to prevent ice formation.
[00:02:15.473]Is there any concern about getting electrocuted?
[00:02:18.022]It's safe to the touch because the human body
[00:02:20.623]is about 10 kilo-ohm resistance, and conductive concrete
[00:02:25.215]has less resistance, so the electricity is gonna
[00:02:28.943]go through the slab instead of a human body.
[00:02:31.393]Okay, so it's not like touching a live wire?
[00:02:33.252]No, no.
[00:02:35.129]Dr. Tuan worked with a Nebraska Department
[00:02:37.313]of Roads to test conductive concrete on a bridge
[00:02:39.844]near Lincoln, the state capital.
[00:02:42.124]When a winter storm was forecast, the bridge
[00:02:44.052]was preheated to about 45 degrees preventing
[00:02:47.283]snow and ice from accumulating.
[00:02:49.473]The bridge trial was so successful,
[00:02:51.513]Professor Tuan was asked by the FAA
[00:02:53.892]to build a tarmac test pad in hopes of using
[00:02:56.752]conductive concrete at airports
[00:02:58.560]to help reduce flight delays.
[00:03:00.440]How has this tested here?
[00:03:02.927]The icing performance is fantastic.
[00:03:06.330]The FAA is now considering further study
[00:03:08.490]at a major airport.
[00:03:09.989]Conductive concrete has got a lot of steel fibers
[00:03:12.402]intermingled together, so they tie together,
[00:03:15.130]and the resistance to freeze/thaw action is very high.
[00:03:18.981]So the conductive concrete usually can last for
[00:03:21.992]at least 15, 20 years without cracking.
[00:03:24.941]It saves time, it saves money, and it saves lives.
[00:03:29.672]It can also help give some weary
[00:03:31.210]snowplow drivers a nice little vacation.

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Conductive Concrete on Innovation Nation

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