Chapter 4 - Graphene-reinforced cement composites for smart infrastructure systems

Abstract

In traditional strategies for structural health monitoring of concrete structures, distributed sensors are commonly utilized to monitor and evaluate the state of the structure. This requires deployment of a large number of sensors to obtain sufficient information that can help the owners and engineers to timely detect anomalies in the structural performance. Considering the challenges, such as high deployment cost, low durability, and weak compatibility, for the use of conventional sensors in the long-term monitoring of concrete structures, self-sensing cement composites with intrinsic strain- and damage-sensing capabilities can be a more practical and sustainable approach for condition monitoring. Although various nano- and microfillers have been used to develop such smart cement composites, graphene and its derivatives have gained significant attention in developing functional cement-based composites over the past decade. Graphene sheets are two-dimensional nanomaterials and offer various advantages such as excellent mechanical properties, ultrahigh specific surface area, and relatively low cost.