Concrete tent

breadmonkey

Video and description below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13430747

17 May 2011 Last updated at 17:17 GMT Help
The past 12 months have seen a remarkable number of humanitarian crises with earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand and deadly tornadoes in the southern US being among the most recent.

Among new innovations which could help relief efforts is a fabric shelter that, when sprayed with water, turns to concrete within 24 hours.

Invented by two engineers while at university, Concrete Canvas allows aid teams to construct solid structures in emergency zones quickly and easily.

Will Crawford and Peter Brewin showed BBC News how the concrete tent is put together and spoke about what inspired them.

I think this is a really great innovation. They're pitching these things as somewhere between a tent and a building so I wonder what sort of working life they expect from the structure. I imagine you would get a lot of cracking due to thermal effects but I guess any repair jobs would be pretty easy, requiring only low-tech tools, materials and labour. I reckon they're going to make a fortune.

bnt

From an engineering perspective, one thing not mentioned in the BBC piece is the pre-stressing that could be going on (I think) due to the inflatable balloon used during construction. If it's happening the way I think it is, the canvas is stretched while the concrete is hardening, and deflating the balloon releases the pre-stress after curing. If done right, that could serve to prevent cracking happening at all, which is crafty if they designed it that way.

mawk

damn clever and pretty well executed.
Be interesting to see future iterations

FarmerGreen

Hmm,
Just what you need after an earthquake.
Going to kip under an improvised concrete structure.
Absolutely brilliantly pointless.
There should be a Clive Sinclair award for misapplication of technology.
I think we have a contender here.

breadmonkey

FarmerGreen wrote: »

Hmm,
Just what you need after an earthquake.
Going to kip under an improvised concrete structure.
Absolutely brilliantly pointless.
There should be a Clive Sinclair award for misapplication of technology.
I think we have a contender here.

Really?

FarmerGreen

Well, I was a bit squiffed when I posted that.
In future I will keep my stupid ideas to myself.
My apologies.
Its still daft though.

Capt'n Midnight

just use chicken wire

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ferrocement

you can even make boats out of it

Equium

I remember this being pitched on Dragon's Den a few years ago. As far as I know, they didn't get funding on the show but they did win a design prize which helped fund the project. Research is, or was, also carried out in Trinity into developing a similar product.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article725408.ece

kirving

FarmerGreen wrote: »

Hmm,
Just what you need after an earthquake.
Going to kip under an improvised concrete structure.
Absolutely brilliantly pointless.
There should be a Clive Sinclair award for misapplication of technology.
I think we have a contender here.

Huh? They're a fantastic idea! Think of how many of they you could fit on a transport plane and drop out the back even if the runways were destroyed.

I realise that thy're not reinforced, but their shape make them inherently strong so they should be ok in an aftershock.

Capt'n Midnight

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Huh? They're a fantastic idea! Think of how many of they you could fit on a transport plane and drop out the back even if the runways were destroyed.

Air lifting heavy supplies is PR more than anything else. Fine if you need to get specialised stuff in.

But I doubt there is a place on this planet where you couldn't buy bags of cement for less than the cost of flying it in.

They did point out in the video that tents are cheaper so unless you have a very specific need you might as well use ordinary tents till the trucks arrive.


A €20m Hercules C130 will typically carry one truck load of supplies ~ 20 tonnes, and they aren't light http://www.canvasbagsonline.com/Printed-Canvas-Bags

Delivered in an air-tight sack packed in a crate, the 25-square-metre and 54-square-metre versions of the Concrete Canvas weigh 1,800 and 3,100 kg ... Billed as the building in a bag, the concrete clothes are fireproof, waterproof and chemically resistant ...

http://www.design4disaster.org/2011/02/12/concrete-canvas/

The package for constructing the shelter consists of a canvas stained with a dry cement ratio united by a PVA adhesive,

kirving

True, aircraft hold noting in comparison to ships, but there are times where they are required quickly.

I like the idea that within 24 hours a surgery or sturdy command post can be set up and will outlast most tents.

Capt'n Midnight

Kevin Irving wrote: »

I like the idea that within 24 hours a surgery or sturdy command post can be set up and will outlast most tents.

Nice idea but I'd imagine in many cases it would be cheaper to just buy a container locally and just have a prepackaged lining