Civil Engineering News

April 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Apr. 9, 2024 — With climate change and rising urbanization, the likelihood and severity of urban flooding are increasing. But not all city blocks are created equal. Researchers investigated how urban layout and building structures contribute to pedestrian safety ...

Biofilm-Resistant Glass for Marine Environments

Apr. 2, 2024 — Engineers have created ultraviolet (UV) rays-emitting glass that can reduce 98% of biofilm from growing on surfaces in underwater ...

With a New Experimental Technique, Engineers Probe the Mechanisms of Landslides and Earthquakes

Mar. 25, 2024 — Researchers developed a method for 3D experiments that can reveal how forces are transmitted through granular materials, and how the shapes of the grains can dramatically change the outcomes. This ...

Bridge in a Box: Unlocking Origami's Power to Produce Load-Bearing Structures

Mar. 18, 2024 — Load-bearing structures like bridges and shelters can be made with origami modules -- versatile components that can fold compactly and adapt into different shapes -- engineers have ...

Latest Headlines

updated 6:20pm EDT

Clearing the Air: Wind Farms More Land Efficient Than Previously Thought

Apr. 17, 2024 — Wind power is a source of energy that is both affordable and renewable. However, decision-makers have been reluctant to invest in wind energy due to a perception that wind farms require a lot of land ...

Building Blocks for Greener Energy: Reconfigurable Elastic Metasurface

Apr. 2, 2024 — Energy harvesting, an eco-friendly technology, extends beyond solar and wind power in generating electricity from unused or discarded energy in daily life, including vibrations generated by passing ...

Are High-Purity Cathode Materials Truly Necessary?

Apr. 1, 2024 — Researchers introduce a groundbreaking alternative to reduce secondary battery ...

Batteries for Airborne Electric Vehicles That Take Off and Land Vertically

Mar. 12, 2024 — Researchers are taking cleaner transportation to the skies by creating and evaluating new batteries for airborne electric vehicles that take off and land vertically. Researchers are developing new ...

Have Metalenses Expanded Their Reach Into the Ultraviolet Region?

Mar. 12, 2024 — A team achieves successful mass production of metalenses designed for application in the ultraviolet ...

Would the Highly Sensitive Transparent Ultrasound Transducer Revolutionize Biomedical Imaging Technology?

Mar. 11, 2024 — A team develops an ultrasensitive broadband transparent ultrasound ...

Pinging Pipes Could Help to Identify Lead Water Lines Without Excavation

Mar. 7, 2024 — A recent study showed that it is possible to discern the composition of a buried pipe by striking an accessible portion of it and monitoring the sound waves that reach the surface. This method could ...

First Metamaterial Developed to Enable Real-Time Shape and Property Control

Feb. 28, 2024 — Engineers have unveiled an encodable multifunctional material that can dynamically tune its shape and mechanical properties in real ...

UBC Okanagan Researchers Look to the Past to Improve Construction Sustainability

Feb. 23, 2024 — Researchers are revisiting old building practices -- the use of by-products and cast-offs -- as a way to improve building materials and ...

What Will It Take for China to Reach Carbon Neutrality by 2060?

Feb. 26, 2024 — To become carbon neutral by 2060, China will have to build eight to 10 times more wind and solar power installations than existed in 2022, according to a new study. Reaching carbon neutrality will ...

Discovery of New Li Ion Conductor Unlocks New Direction for Sustainable Batteries

Feb. 15, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a solid material that rapidly conducts lithium ions. Consisting of non-toxic earth-abundant elements, the new material has high enough Li ion conductivity to replace the ...

Exploring the Effect of Ring Closing on Fluorescence of Supramolecular Polymers

Feb. 13, 2024 — The properties of supramolecular polymers are dictated by the self-assembled state of the molecules. However, not much is known about the impact of morphologies on the properties of nano- and ...

Road Features That Predict Crash Sites Identified in New Machine-Learning Model

Feb. 13, 2024 — Issues such as abrupt changes in speed limits and incomplete lane markings are among the most influential factors that can predict road crashes, finds new research. The study then used machine ...

Edge-to-Edge Assembly Technique for 2D Nanosheets

Feb. 2, 2024 — A research team develops edge-to-edge assembly technique for 2D ...

Researchers Propose AI-Guided System for Robotic Inspection of Buildings, Roads and Bridges

Jan. 30, 2024 — Our built environment is aging and failing faster than we can maintain it. Recent building collapses and structural failures of roads and bridges are indicators of a problem that's likely to get ...

Benchtop Test Quickly Identifies Extremely Impact-Resistant Materials

Jan. 29, 2024 — Engineers developed a way to quickly test metamaterial architectures and their resilience to supersonic impacts. They plan to use it to identify new metamaterial designs that could form the basis for ...

Coal-Based Product Could Replace Sand in Concrete

Jan. 26, 2024 — A new study found that graphene derived from metallurgical coke, a coal-based product, through flash Joule heating could serve not only as a reinforcing additive in cement but also as a replacement ...

Perfecting 3D-Printed Blood Vessels With Pores

Jan. 17, 2024 — Due to the substantial clinical demand for artificial small-diameter vessels (SDVs), numerous commercial products have emerged. However, the majority of existing artificial SDVs lack an endothelial ...

How Does Corrosion Happen? New Research Examines Process on Atomic Level

Jan. 3, 2024 — New research reveals how corrosion happens on the atomic ...

Computational Method Discovers Hundreds of New Ceramics for Extreme Environments

Jan. 3, 2024 — If you have a deep-seated, nagging worry over dropping your phone in molten lava, you're in luck. Materials scientists have developed a method for rapidly discovering a new class of materials ...

Machine Learning Boosts Search for New Materials

Dec. 19, 2023 — During X-ray diffraction experiments, bright lasers shine on a sample, producing diffracted images that contain important information about the material's structure and properties. But ...

Veins of Bacteria Could Form a Self-Healing System for Concrete Infrastructure

Dec. 8, 2023 — In hopes of producing concrete structures that can repair their cracks, researchers are putting a new twist on an old trick for improving the durability of concrete. Fiber reinforcement has been ...

Exposure to Soft Robots Decreases Human Fears About Working With Them

Dec. 5, 2023 — Seeing robots made with soft, flexible parts in action appears to lower people's anxiety about working with them or even being replaced by them. A study found that watching videos of a soft ...

Recycling Concrete Using Carbon Can Reduce Emissions and Waste

Dec. 4, 2023 — Amid the rubble of large-sale earthquake, war or other disaster -- and as ageing buildings and infrastructure are replaced -- mountains of concrete are often taken to landfill or pounded into rubble ...

Unsafe Lead Levels in School Drinking Water: New Study IDs Building Risk Factors

Nov. 30, 2023 — Civil and environmental engineers have determined the factors that may help identify the schools and daycare centers at greatest risk for elevated levels of lead in drinking water. The most telling ...

Researchers Engineer a Material That Can Perform Different Tasks Depending on Temperature

Nov. 28, 2023 — Researchers report that they have developed a new composite material designed to change behaviors depending on temperature in order to perform specific tasks. These materials are poised to be part of ...

New Method Verifies Carbon Capture in Concrete

Nov. 27, 2023 — Carbon capture is essential to reduce the impact of human carbon dioxide emissions on our climate. Researchers have developed a method to confirm whether carbon in concrete originates from the raw ...

Autonomous Excavator Constructs a 6-Meter-High Dry-Stone Wall

Nov. 22, 2023 — Researchers taught an autonomous excavator to construct dry stone walls itself using boulders weighing several tons and demolition ...

New Ultra Stainless Steel for Hydrogen Production

Nov. 17, 2023 — A research project has made a brand-new breakthrough over conventional stainless steel and the development of stainless steel for hydrogen ...

'Cooling Glass' Blasts Building Heat Into Space

Nov. 13, 2023 — Researchers aiming to combat rising global temperatures have developed a new 'cooling glass' that can turn down the heat indoors without electricity by drawing on the cold depths of space. ...