There’s plenty that goes into making a luxurious, lavish bedroom that fulfills all your needs to perfection and also offers a soothing and relaxing environment. The bedroom generally gets paid plenty of attention and a lot of thought goes into ensuring that it looks exactly as one wants it to. That is an understandable sentiment too, as most often, it is our only private sanctuary where our own little world is hidden away from the prying eyes of everyone around. Headboards are a possible thing to look into, as an elegant way of taking the feeling of your favourite room in the house to the next level. Classic tufted headboards bring that regal presence into your bedroom and work best in muted colours. There are plenty of materials to choose from. Obviously, the material that you choose not only should go along with your existing bed and the fabric and pattern already in place, but also with the the theme of the room.
Smart materials are materials engineered to respond to environmental stimuli such as temperature, pressure, and the presence of oxygen. They are called by other names such as, Intelligent materials, Active materials and Adoptive materials. The devises that are made using smart materials are called “Smart Devices”. Similarly, the systems and structures that have incorporated smart materials are called “Smart Systems” and “Smart Structures”.
Smart Concrete Concrete is a core building material. But even concrete starts to crumble when it comes face-to-face with water, wind, stress and pressure. The current method of dealing with structural instability in concrete has been to replace or repair it. But what if all you had to do was add a little water? A new type of smart concrete contains dormant bacteria spores and calcium lactate in self-contained pods. When these pods come into c
ontact with water they create limestone, filling up the cracks and reinforcing the concrete. Self healing concrete is estimated to save up to 50% of concrete’s lifetime cost by eliminating the need for repair. Smart concrete is still being tested to determine how long the bacteria sustains itself, but researchers are hopeful they will be able to officially introduce smart concrete to the construction industry very soon. Shapeshifting Metal Shapeshifting metals have a dramatic benefit on the durability of skyscrapers, bridges and homes. Shapeshifting metals can undergo great stress and temporarily change shape, but they are designed to ‘remember’ their original form and revert back to it if altered in some way.
Used in the construction of a bridge, for example, would help sustain the bridge against damage from a hurricane or earthquake. Practical use of this type of metal is largely still in the development phase, with scientists specifically studying how smart metal can be used by the construction industry. Self Healing Coatings Not yet in use, but in the process of being tested by a group of scientists, is a self healing coating that could be applied to concrete. This material has the ability to self heal when it cracks and is exposed to sunlight, allowing UV rays to react with particles in the concrete that expand and then fill the cracks. Usually, cracks are repaired by hand, which is difficult because cracks are often hard to detect.
A material (polymers, ceramics, etc.) that can repair damage caused by normal usage could lower production costs of a number of different industrial processes through longer part lifetime, reduction of inefficiency over time caused by degradation, as well as prevent costs incurred by material failure. For a material to be defined as self-healing, it is necessary that the healing process occurs without human intervention.
SOME BASIC QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON SELF HEALING MATERIALS:
What self healing materials can do? When a crack forms in the material, it can recover the plastic deformation and heal itself. It does that without the human intervention. Where Self Healing Materials can be used? It can be used in satellites or aircrafts. It can also be used in civil infrastructure and be used in prosthetics so a simple crack won’t result in another surgery.If a crack starts moving through material, it should be stopped immediately, otherwise some accident may occur. Propagation of damage should be stopped to prevent failure, but the damage or crack is very hard to detect when you don’t have access. This is where this material can be used.
What’s the importance of this research on Self Healing Materials?
The failure of structural materials is a huge problem. This research will help in structural health monitoring with self-healing. This material can sense damage and then respond to it. It only takes seconds to stop the damage. Living canopy changes its appearance throughout the day This responsive design merges biology, architecture and maths to form a canopy that responds to light. Over 1 million yards of digitally knitted and robotically woven fibre is currently hanging over MoMA PS1’s courtyard in New York City. The living textiles display subtle colour in sunlight and emit glowing light after sundown.
Created by Jenny Sabin Studio, the interactive installation won this year’s Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s annual Young Architects Program, a platform that celebrates transformative architecture. Sabin’s studio is experimental and multidisciplinary in its approach to design. Her work, which explores the intersections of architecture, biology and mathematics. For MoMA PS1, Sabin created a canopy structure that transforms with its environment. According to the studio, the design incorporates 100 robotically woven recycled spool stools and a misting system that responds to visitors’ proximity to produce a refreshing microclimate. Lumen’s adaptive architecture is inspired by “collective levity, play, and interaction as the structure transforms throughout the day and night, responding to the density of bodies, heat, and sunlight.” 84 structure & design TECH DESIGN
