Just a few decades ago concrete was often misunderstood, disliked and captured by its image fixed due to the rapid urbanization of the 1960s. Three ingredients make up the dry mix: coarse aggregate, consisting of larger pieces of material like stones or gravel fine aggregate, made up of smaller particles such as sand and cement, a very fine powder material that binds the mix together when water is added. The principal objective of this project is to design translucent concrete blocks with the use of optic fiber strands and then analyze their various properties and characteristics.Īll tests further performed on the translucent concrete samples are done to ascertain the improvements of the casted blocks over normal concrete blocks of the same size and with the same design ratios, and to ascertain practical utility of using translucent concrete as a building material.Ĭoncrete has been used since Roman times for the development of infrastructure and housing, but its basic components have remained the same. In this project, we will check and perform tests on compressive strength and light transmittance property of translucent concrete. Main aim of the study is to design translucent concrete blocks with the use of optical fiber strands with mortar & cement and then analyze their various physical & engineering properties with respect to conventional concrete blocks by adding optical fibers of 3 % 4 % and 5%. Light is transmitted from one surface of the wall to the other due to the presence of optical fibers along the overall width of the wall which allows light to pass through.Īn optical glass fiber strand is a flexible, transparent fiber made of silica or plastic, slightly thicker than a human hair & can function as waveguide, or 'light pipe' to transmit light between the two ends. Patil Institute of Technology, Pimpri, Pune-411018Ībstract Transparent concrete is the new type of concrete introduced in modern era which carries special property of light transmitting due to presence of optical fiber strands & is also known as translucent concrete or light transmitting concrete. Translucent concrete lightens a building’s visual weight by acting as a source of illumination and, more importantly, drastically decreases energy consumption, helping the design world address an issue it has been struggling with for decades.Translucent Concrete by using Fibre Optic StrandsĪbdul Rahman1, Mateen Rashid2, Mohamed Mansoor3ĭr. These companies are also continuing to display their new inventions at expos around Europe.Ī material that’s been used for thousands of years has been completely transformed into one with endless possibilities. Products like i.light were used at the Expo 2010 to show the incredible benefits the material has to offer. With over 20% of natural light reaching the interior, artificial lighting costs can also be reduced.Ī number of companies now produce and manufacture translucent concrete, including LUCEM, Litracon, Italcementi Group and Luccon. In preparation for Expo 2010, the contractor produced 200 panels per day. This method is more cost effective than adding glass fibers to the mix and i.light panels can be manufactured more rapidly than other translucent concrete materials. Made by the Italcementi Group, i.light incorporates small rectangular areas (2-3mm), filled with multi-colored resins, to allow light to pass through. In 2010, architect Giampaolo Imbrighi unveiled i.light, a more advanced version of translucent concrete, in the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai China. Composed of fine materials only, this product possesses an amazing compressive strength of over 10,000 psi, comparable to that of any high-strength concrete on the market today. To create the translucent effect, glass fibers are added to the crushed stone, cement, & water mix. “ Liquid Stone” or “ Translucent Concrete” In 2001, Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi created what most people thought was impossible. After much experimentation, the product can now be seen in architectural and interior environments.

It changes the history of concrete as we know it and alters a mix that has been used for thousands of years. According to Google’s online dictionary concrete is “A heavy, rough building material made from a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, cement, and water, which can be spread or poured.” With today’s technology concrete can now also be described as “light” and “transparent.” A number of companies are introducing translucent concrete, an innovative building material that allows light to penetrate its dense surface, thereby revolutionizing the way concrete is used today.