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1 1 Composites: Perspectives & Provocations C T J U N E 2 0 1 4 or those of us who live in the eastern half of the United States, it was a pretty tough winter. Many cities, including Detroit and Indianapolis, set records for snowfall and saw exceptionally cold temperatures. Inevitably, the snow melts, the temperatures warm up, and spring arrives, bringing with it longer days, sunshine and fowers. Spring also brings some things not as pleasant, such as roads with a lot of new potholes and bridges deteriorated by road salt and freeze/thaw cycles — and the inevi- table "construction" season. While I navigated rough roads around the U.S. Midwest over the Eas- ter weekend, I came across an article in the April 16 Txchnologist Blog about a new "superhydrophobic concrete," doped with copious amounts of silox- ane-based additives to repel water, and augmented with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fbers to impart fexibility. (See http://txchnologist. com/tagged/concrete.) Developed by a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.), laboratory testing of the formulation suggests this advanced concrete could last more than a century, compared to 30 years for conventional concrete roads. I was reminded of an experiment conducted by the Utah De- partment of Transportation in 1989 when I lived in Salt Lake City. A 4-mile/6.4-km stretch of the busiest portion of Interstate 15 through Salt Lake City was coated with a 0.75-inch/19-mm layer of a material called Syn-crete, a polymer-modifed concrete. Te idea was to prolong the life of the highway for at least 10 years, de- laying reconstruction and its associated costs. Within days, large chunks of the topping cracked and disbonded from the underly- ing roadway, breaking windshields and causing other damage to vehicles. Te topping was completely removed soon afer, at con- siderable expense. A decade later, I-15 through Salt Lake City was completely rebuilt in preparation for the 2002 winter Olympics. To my knowledge, this was done with conventional techniques. Te new superhydrophobic concrete from Wisconsin is being tested in a university parking structure to see if the results seen Is it possible to change the infrastructure paradigm? Bio | Dale Brosius Dale Brosius is the head of his own consulting company and the president of Dayton, Ohio-based Quickstep Composites, the U.S. subsidiary of Australia-based Quickstep Technolo- gies (Bankstown Airport, New South Wales), which develops out-of-autoclave curing processes for advanced composites. His career includes a number of positions at Dow Chemi- cal, Fiberite and Cytec, and for three years he served as the general chair of SPE's annual Automotive Composites Con- ference and Exhibition (ACCE). Brosius has a BS in chemical engineering from Texas A&M; University and an MBA. Since 2000, he has been a contributing writer for Composites Technology and sister magazine High-Performance Composites. F in the lab can be replicated in everyday use. Te inventors say the product costs more than conventional concrete, but, in time, would "pay for itself with diminished maintenance." Hold on! Are we talk- ing lifecycle costs? I think I've seen this movie before, as it relates to composites in infrastructure. And the evidence is in — lifecycle costs just don't matter unless the price premium is fairly small. Tere are more than 600,000 bridges in the U.S. and it is esti- mated that almost 26 percent are either structurally defcient or functionally obsolete. Tis represents a huge potential market for repair and/or replacement. Faced with limited annual budgets, state and local transportation executives have the choice to replace a certain number of bridges with concrete that will last 30 to 40 years, or half as many using composites that could last up to 100 years. In both cases, their careers will be long fnished before any- one will hold them to account, so the easy answer is twice as many low-cost bridges. I contacted Scott Reeve, president of Composite Advantage (Dayton, Ohio), to see if any progress has been made in winning the lifecycle-cost argument. Reeve, whose company is among the most successful fabricators of compos- ite bridge decks, confrmed the problem still exists. "A composite vehicle deck is about twice the price of a concrete deck. Even accounting for lower instal- lation costs, we are probably 1.8 times the traditional solution," he noted. "Un- til we can get that diferential down to around 15 percent, market penetration will remain slow. Te existing govern- ment procurement structure does not value life cycle costs in in- frastructure." Numerous contractors are using composites for remediation of concrete bridge decks and columns. While this is good for material suppliers and the reputation of composites as a whole, it doesn't help fabricators of composite structures, says Reeve. Composite Advan- tage has established a strong reputation in pedestrian bridges and has been able to capture vehicular bridge deck replacements where composites bring immediate value over concrete — for example, be- ing able to use the existing structural elements, which would not otherwise be able to support the weight of a concrete deck, or the addition of a sidewalk where one did not previously exist. Integrated properly, composites can enable replacement of a bridge over a sin- gle weekend — clearly a beneft in congested cities. Despite the resistance posed by economics, Reeve is a long-term optimist regarding the potential for composite bridge decks. "It took 30 years for steel to replace wood in bridge structures, so the op- portunity to change the mindset is still there." I hope he's right, and I hope that the new super concrete — which is, afer all, a fber- reinforced composite — succeeds as well. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a few less potholes every spring. | CT | On a bridge, a composite vehicle deck is about twice the price of a concrete deck. Until we can get that differential down to around 15 percent, market penetration will remain slow. 0614CT Perspectives&Provocations-OK.indd; 11 5/20/2014 7:47:01 AM