Construction News

April 24, 2024

Top Headlines

Bridge in a Box: Unlocking Origami's Power to Produce Load-Bearing Structures

Mar. 18, 2024 — Load-bearing structures like bridges and shelters can be made with origami modules -- versatile components that can fold compactly and adapt into different shapes -- engineers have ...

UBC Okanagan Researchers Look to the Past to Improve Construction Sustainability

Feb. 23, 2024 — Researchers are revisiting old building practices -- the use of by-products and cast-offs -- as a way to improve building materials and sustainability of the trade. A technique known as rammed earth ...

Physicists Develop More Efficient Solar Cell

Feb. 20, 2024 — Physicists have used complex computer simulations to develop a new design for significantly more efficient solar cells than previously available. A thin layer of organic material, known as tetracene, is responsible for the increase in ...

3D Printed Nanocellulose Upscaled for Green Architectural Applications

Feb. 7, 2024 — For the first time, a hydrogel material made of nanocellulose and algae has been tested as an alternative, greener architectural material. The study shows how the abundant sustainable material can be 3D printed into a wide array of architectural ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:51pm EDT

Improving Fuel Cell Durability With Fatigue-Resistant Membranes

Feb. 6, 2024 — In hydrogen fuel cells, electrolyte membranes frequently undergo deformation and develop cracks during operation. A research team has recently introduced a fatigue-resistant polymer electrolyte ...

Researchers Propose AI-Guided System for Robotic Inspection of Buildings, Roads and Bridges

Jan. 30, 2024 — Our built environment is aging and failing faster than we can maintain it. Recent building collapses and structural failures of roads and bridges are ...

Computational Method Discovers Hundreds of New Ceramics for Extreme Environments

Jan. 3, 2024 — If you have a deep-seated, nagging worry over dropping your phone in molten lava, you're in luck. Materials scientists have developed a method for ...

How Does Corrosion Happen? New Research Examines Process on Atomic Level

Jan. 3, 2024 — New research reveals how corrosion happens on the atomic ...

Recycling Concrete Using Carbon Can Reduce Emissions and Waste

Dec. 4, 2023 — Amid the rubble of large-sale earthquake, war or other disaster -- and as ageing buildings and infrastructure are replaced -- mountains of concrete are often taken to landfill or pounded into rubble ...

Veins of Bacteria Could Form a Self-Healing System for Concrete Infrastructure

Dec. 8, 2023 — In hopes of producing concrete structures that can repair their cracks, researchers are putting a new twist on an old trick for improving the ...

Autonomous Excavator Constructs a 6-Meter-High Dry-Stone Wall

Nov. 22, 2023 — Researchers taught an autonomous excavator to construct dry stone walls itself using boulders weighing several tons and demolition ...

New Ultra Stainless Steel for Hydrogen Production

Nov. 17, 2023 — A research project has made a brand-new breakthrough over conventional stainless steel and the development of stainless steel for hydrogen ...

AI Trained to Identify Least Green Homes

Nov. 2, 2023 — First of its kind AI-model can help policy-makers efficiently identify and prioritize houses for retrofitting and other decarbonizing ...

Preventing Catastrophes With Next-Generation Sensors

Oct. 18, 2023 — As the wind and rain pound the blades of a wind turbine, researchers carefully monitor screens, hundreds of kilometers away analyzing if the blade's coatings can withstand the onslaught. While this ...

Modular Dam Design Could Accelerate the Adoption of Renewable Energy

Oct. 10, 2023 — Scientists have developed a new modular steel buttress dam system designed to resolve energy storage issues hindering the integration of renewable resources into the energy mix. The new modular steel ...

Robustness of the World's Skyscrapers Stress-Tested

Aug. 30, 2023 — The safety of tall buildings in the world's cities, in the face of extreme external traumas like vehicle impacts, blasts or fires, has been tested using a model developed by structural engineers ...

New Test Chamber Created to Find Better Ways to Keep People Cool

Aug. 22, 2023 — A shipping container that can test passive cooling systems could help researchers and builders find carbon-free ways to keep people cool in extreme temperatures. Researchers created the 60 ...

Artificial Intelligence Designs Advanced Materials

Aug. 11, 2023 — Scientists pioneer a new machine learning model for corrosion-resistant alloy ...

Scientists Create Novel Approach to Control Energy Waves in 4D

July 31, 2023 — Everyday life involves the three dimensions or 3D -- along an X, Y and Z axis, or up and down, left and right, and forward and back. But, in recent years scientists have explored a 'fourth ...

Researcher Turns One of the Basic Rules of Construction Upside Down

July 11, 2023 — Structural engineers are familiar with seventeenth-century scientist Robert Hooke's theory that a hanging chain will mirror the shape of an upstanding rigid arch. However, new research now shows ...

Climate-Friendly Air Conditioning Inspired by Termites

July 6, 2023 — The climate control used by termites in their mounds could inspire tomorrow's climate-smart buildings. New research shows that future buildings inspired by the termites could achieve the same ...

Fast, Automated, Affordable Test for Cement Durability

July 5, 2023 — Engineers have developed a new test that can predict the durability of cement in seconds to minutes -- rather than the hours it takes using current methods. The test measures the behavior of water ...

The Looming 840,000 Ton Waste Problem That Isn't Single-Use Plastics

July 3, 2023 — Researchers have developed new methods to solve a major source of future waste from the automotive, aerospace and renewable ...

New 3D-Printing Method Builds Structures With Two Metals

June 22, 2023 — Taking a cue from the structural complexity of trees and bones, engineers have created a way to 3D-print two types of steel in the same circular layer using two welding machines. The resulting ...

House of Moveable Wooden Walls Unveiled, Promising a Cheaper, Greener Alternative to 'Knocking Through'.

June 2, 2023 — Architects have designed a prototype home constructed with flexible wooden partition walls which can be shifted to meet the changing needs of residents. The invention aims to reduce waste and carbon ...

Reading Between the Cracks: Artificial Intelligence Can Identify Patterns in Surface Cracking to Assess Damage in Reinforced Concrete Structures

June 1, 2023 — Researchers are trying to make the process more efficient and definitive by using artificial intelligence, combined with a classic mathematical method for quantifying web-like networks, to determine ...

Upcycling Method Turns Textile Trash to Functional Coatings

May 2, 2023 — In an effort to make textiles more sustainable, a new method allows researchers to break old clothing down chemically and reuse polyester compounds to create fire resistant, anti-bacterial or ...

New Chemistry Can Extract Virgin-Grade Materials from Wind Turbine Blades in One Process

Apr. 26, 2023 — Researchers have developed a chemical process that can disassemble the epoxy composite of wind turbine blades and simultaneously extract intact glass fibers as well as one of the epoxy resin's ...

A Team Creates 'Quantum Composites' for Various Electrical and Optical Innovations

Apr. 19, 2023 — A team has shown in the laboratory the unique and practical function of newly created materials, which they called quantum composites, that may advance electrical, optical, and computer ...

AI Could Set a New Bar for Designing Hurricane-Resistant Buildings

Mar. 30, 2023 — Being able to withstand hurricane-force winds is the key to a long life for many buildings on the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast of the U.S. Determining the right level of winds to design for is ...

New Additives Could Turn Concrete Into an Effective Carbon Sink

Mar. 28, 2023 — Introducing additives to concrete manufacturing processes could reduce the sizeable carbon footprint of the material without altering its bulk mechanical properties, a study ...

What Really Matters in Multi-Story Building Design?

Mar. 23, 2023 — The impact of multi-story building design considerations on embodied carbon emissions, cost, and operational energy has been ...

Cracking the Concrete Code

Mar. 21, 2023 — New research introduces metamaterial concrete for the development of smart civil infrastructure systems. Researchers present a new concept for lightweight and mechanically-tunable concrete systems ...

Bushfire Safe Rooms May Save Lives

Mar. 21, 2023 — Researchers have built and tested a bushfire safe room that exceeds current Australian standards and could keep people alive or protect valuables when evacuation is no longer an ...