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Andes‘ University and the Colombian Bamboo Society, the researchers from UK institutions aim to draw on existing Colombian knowledge of bamboo to exploit this material in the construction industry.
Members of the team have returned from a fact-finding mission to Colombia run through the EPSRC-funded Low Impact Materials and innovative Engineering Solutions Network (LimesNet).
Hector Archila Santos, a Bath University PhD researcher on the project, said: ?Our research in Bath has focused on the properties of the bamboo species Guadua angustifolia Kunth, which is a fast-growing, woody species native to tropical American regions.
‘We have investigated different processing techniques of using a flat form of bamboo traditionally used as sheet material of Guadua wall frame systems (bahareque). To overcome issues regarding the variability in thickness and density of bamboo, thermo-hydro-mechanical modifications have been undertaken, producing flat and regular surfaces suitable for lamination. Standardised cross-laminated bamboo panels are produced by gluing the faces with a high-performance epoxy resin.
‘We‘ve imaged cross-sections of bamboo to identify structural components, such as the stiff vascular bundles. We‘ve used transmission electron microscopy to identify cellular-level features and have measured the mechanical properties of bamboo through using micro-bend test using specimens from different positions in the bamboo stem. ‘Through the project we‘ve explored options for producing high-performance composites, including the combination of bamboo fibres with bio-polymer matrixes and the reinforcement of bamboo with other fibre composites.‘
A first publication that contextualises the research project at Bath has been published in ?Low-Carbon Construction Using Guadua Bamboo in Colombia‘ in Key Engineering Materials, and was presented at a LimesNet Research Conference held in Bath.
Possible applications of the resulting novel composites developed through this research programme include incorporation in architectural structures, particularly in areas such as joints and load-bearing elements of buildings.
In the future, the team will evaluate the performance of the modified bamboo in a bid to prove the usability of this material in widespread construction projects.
小组调查了竹子在房屋建筑中的潜能
来自英国巴斯大学BRE革新型建筑材料中心的研究者正在调查竹子在一系列的房屋建筑中的应用。 根据一项声明，竹子跟其他建筑材料相比具有许多优势，它的生长速度非常快，比硬木材达到成熟期的速度要快三倍，并且具有一种跟钢材相当的强度。
然而，目前它的一些固有的缺点阻碍了这种材料的广泛应用，竹子在被暴露到UV射线和潮湿的环境中时具有有限的耐久性，并且它的薄壁和空内膜意味着它的抗火性很差。
这个研究小组（包括剑桥大学和考文垂大学）正在致力于开发竹子的解剖学认识和结构应用，以便能够对其进行修改来克服这些限制，同时保持它独特的机械特性。
通过跟哥伦比亚组织（包括哥伦比亚国立大学、安第斯山大学和哥伦比亚竹子学会）的合作，英国皇家理工学院的研究者旨在利用哥伦比亚对竹子的现存知识开发这种材料在建筑产业的应用。
小组的成员已经从一个真相调查任务中返回到了哥伦比亚，并经过了EPSRC资助建立的Low Impact Materials和革新型Engineering Solutions Network (LimesNet)。
Hector Archila Santos是这个项目中的一名巴斯大学博士研究员，他说道：“我们在巴斯进行的研究主要集中于一种竹类瓜多竹的特性的研究，它的生长速度很快，并且是热带美洲区域所产的一个木质物种。”
‘我们通过使用一种扁平形式的竹子（通过作为Guadua壁式框架系统的薄片材料来使用）对不同的32
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制造工艺进行了调查，为了克服关于竹子厚度和密度的变异性的问题，他们对其实施了热力-液压-机械修改，从而生产出了适用于薄板中的扁平的常规表面，标准的层叠竹子面板是通过将表面跟一种高性能的环氧树脂胶合在一起制造出来的。
‘我们对竹子的横截面进行了成像，从而鉴定出了它的结构元件，例如坚硬的维管束，我们还使用透射式电子显微镜鉴定出了细胞级的特征，并通过对竹子茎秆上不同位置的样本进行的弯曲测试测量了竹子的机械特性。
‘通过这个项目，我们探索了生产高性能复合材料的方法，包括竹子纤维跟生物聚合物矩阵的结合和利用其它纤维复合材料对竹子进行的加固。’
描述这个研究项目的首个出版物被发布在了Key Engineering Materials杂志上，并在巴斯的一个LimesNet研究会议上进行了呈现。
通过这个研究项目所开发出的新型复合材料的可能性应用包括在建筑结构中的集成，特别是在例如建筑物的接头和承重元件领域。
在未来，小组将会对修改后的竹子的性能进行评估，以便能够证明这种材料在大范围建筑项目中的可用性。
Portable inflatable tank could reduce eco impact of fracking
A UK company hopes to reduce the impact of fracking on the environment using new technology adapted from its blast protection system.
Newport-based Cintec has created a portable, inflatable polymer tank for storing water and waste from the hydraulic fracturing gas drilling process, developed from the company‘s novel Waterwall technology used to isolate and safely detonate bombs.
The 64,000-litre hexagonal tank is designed as a way to store the huge amount of water needed for fracking rather than digging a permanent reservoir, which would otherwise be needed even for test sites that may only be used for a short time.
It can also be used to drain the debris produced by fracking by fitting it with porous bags that allow the water to be collected and recycled in the pool below.
‘The beauty of it is that it‘s a completely inert material,‘ Cintec managing director Peter James told The Engineer. ?You can fit all this [water] in and afterwards you just pack it away and the site‘s left as it was before.‘
Cintec developed the prototype tank from its blast protection system, which uses self-inflating structures made from a PVC-coated material that are internally reinforced with a specialised stitching technique and filled with water to absorb the energy from exploding bombs.
The company, which began by specialising in building anchoring and reinforcing, first adapted this technology to help support the central chamber of Egypt‘s oldest stone pyramid while it was being restored, filling the bags with air rather than water.
This idea was then transferred to the creation of the giant water tanks, using the reinforced internal stitching of the inflated bags to provide the necessary strength to hold tens of thousands of litres of water.
‘The challenge was to make it because it‘s such a huge thing,‘ said James. Although its design principles are the same as those of the Waterwall, the tank is more than four times as large as Cintec‘s biggest blast protection system.
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The angle of the stitches mean the bags that make up the tank‘s sides must be straight in shape so the tank is built as a hexagon rather than the ideal circular form.
This also creates potential weakness at the corners so Cintec is planning to reinforce them before the tank is launched commercially. James estimated the company could eventually produce even bigger pools to store up to 100,000 litres.
The tank was designed to be able to withstand increased pressure on one side so it can be placed on uneven ground. The company also plans to install a heater in the side of the pool to prevent the water freezing in cold climates.
便携式可膨胀水箱能够降低水力压裂造成的环境影响
一家英国公司希望能够利用一种从防爆系统中改编而来的新技术降低水力压裂对环境造成的影响。 新港创新科技中心制造出了一种能够存储水力压裂气体钻取过程中产生的水和废物的便携式、可膨胀的聚合物水箱，这项发明是由公司用来隔离和引爆炸弹的新型水墙技术开发而来的。
这种64,000公升的六边形水箱是作为一种存储大量水（水力压裂的需要，而不是挖掘恒定蓄水池）的方式被设计出来的，另一方面它也可以被短时间使用的测试场地所使用。
它也可以被用来排泄水力压裂所产生的碎屑，通过为其装配一些能够收集水并在下面的水池中进行再循环的渗透性袋子。
‘它的美妙之处在于它是一种很彻底的惰性材料，’创新科技中心的总经理Peter James告诉The Engineer，‘你能够将所有这些水注入进去，然后你再把它清理掉，最后这个位置就会恢复成原来的样子。’
Cintec从它的防爆系统中（使用一种由利用专门的缝合技术从内部对其进行加固的PVC涂层材料制成的自动膨胀结构）开发出了这种原型水箱。
这家公司——开始时专门从事建筑锚固和补强——首次采用这种技术来帮助支持埃及最古老的石金字塔的中心室，由于它正在被进行修复，将这些袋子里填充空气而不是水。
然后，这个想法被转移到了大型水箱的制造中，使用膨胀袋加固的内部缝合来提供必要的强度承受成千上万公升的水。
‘所面临的挑战是它的制造过程，由于它是这样一个庞然大物，’James说道，尽管它的设计原理跟水墙的设计原理一样，这种水箱要比Cintec最大的防爆系统大四倍。
缝线的角度意味着组成水箱侧面的袋子在形状上必须是平直的，以便使水箱能够作为一个六边形被建造，而不是理想中的环形。
这也潜在的使它产生了一些缺陷，所以Cintec计划在对水箱进行商业化应用之前先对其进行加固，James预测到公司可能最终会生产更大的水池来使存储容量达到100,000公升。
这种水箱被设计成能够在一侧承受不断提高的压力，所以它能够被放置在不平坦的地面上，公司还计划在水池的一侧安装一个加热器来阻止水在较冷的气候中结冰。
New space-age insulating material for homes, clothing and other everyday uses
A major improvement in the world's lightest solid material and best solid insulating material, described here today, may put more of this space-age wonder into insulated clothing, refrigerators with thinner walls that hold more food, building insulation and other products.
The report, on development of a new flexible \\34
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part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. More than 14,000 scientists and others are in the City of Brotherly Love for the event, which features 8,600 reports on new development in science and other topics.
Mary Ann B. Meador, Ph.D., explained that traditional aerogels, developed decades ago and made from silica, found in beach sand, are brittle, and break and crumble easily. Scientists have improved the strength of aerogels over the years, and Meador described one of these muscled-up materials developed with colleagues at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
\new aerogels are up to 500 times stronger than their silica counterparts,\Meador said. \thick piece actually can support the weight of a car. And they can be produced in a thin form, a film so flexible that a wide variety of commercial and industrial uses are possible.\
Flexible aerogels, for instance, could be used in a new genre of super-insulating clothing that keeps people warm in the cold with less bulk than traditional \garments. Tents and sleeping bags would have the same advantages. Home refrigerator and freezer walls insulated with other forms of the material would shrink in thickness, increasing storage capacity. Meador said that the aerogel is 5-10 times more efficient than existing insulation, with a quarter-inch-thick sheet providing as much insulation as 3 inches of fiberglass. And there could be multiple applications in thin-but-high-efficiency insulation for buildings, pipes, water heater tanks and other devices.
NASA envisions one use in an advanced re-entry system for spacecraft returning to Earth from the International Space Station, and perhaps other missions. Re-entry vehicles need a heat shield that keeps them from burning up due to frictional heating from Earth's atmosphere. Those shields can be bulky and heavy. So NASA is exploring use of a heat shield made from flexible aerogel that inflates like a balloon when spacecraft enter the atmosphere. Meador said the material also could be used to insulate spacesuits. However, it likely would not be good for firefighting clothing products, which require protection beyond the 575 degrees Fahrenheit limits of the aerogel. Scientists produced the stronger new aerogels in two ways. One involved making changes in the innermost architecture of traditional silica aerogels. They used a polymer, a plastic-like material, to reinforce the networks of silica that extend throughout an aerogel's structure. Another involved making aerogels from polyimide, an incredibly strong and heat-resistant polymer, or plastic-like material, and then inserting brace-like cross-links to add further strength to the structure.
具有家庭、服装和其他日常应用的新型太空绝缘材料
世界上最轻的固体材料和最好的固体绝缘材料所获得的显著改善（今天在这里被进行了描述）能够在更大程度上将这种太空时代的奇迹引入到绝缘服装、具有能够承受更多食物的薄壁的冰箱、建筑绝缘体和其他产品中。
这项报道，关于一种新的灵活性气凝胶的发展——这种材料如此轻以至于人们称其为固体烟雾——是美国化学学会（世界上最大的科学学会）第244届国家会议暨展览会的一部分，超过14,000名科学家和其他学者在博爱之城参加了这项会议——有8600篇关于科学和其他主题的新发展的报告。
Mary Ann B. Meador（一名博士研究生）解释道几十年前开发出的传统气凝胶是由二氧化硅制成的，这种材料能够在沙滩中找到，它很脆弱，很容易折断或破碎，近些年来，科学家改善了气凝胶的强度，Meador描述了他和NASA Glenn研究中心（位于俄亥俄州的克利夫兰）的同事所开发出的这些强度提升型材料的一种。
“这种新的气凝胶要比他们的硅相对物坚硬500倍，”Meador说道，“一个厚片实际上能够支撑一辆汽车的重量，并且它们能够以一种很薄的形式进行生产，这种薄膜非常灵活以至于它可能会产生一系列的商业和工业应用。”
例如，柔软的水凝胶可以被用在一种新型的超级绝缘服中，这种衣服在使人们保暖的同时具有比传统
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