UH Engineering students and faculty test lunar concrete in Hilo
University of Hawai’i Civil Engineering (CEE) Assistant Professor Lin Shen joined CEE graduate students Yanping Li and Hamed Bahrami Jovein to pour a sidewalk made out of “lunar concrete” in downtown Hilo last Thursday. This special concrete, also known as “geopolymer concrete,” uses local waste material coal ash instead of cement and may greatly reduce the state’s economic and environmental costs associated with cement production. Because the soils on the Moon and Mars may have the necessary chemicals to make geopolymer concrete, this research also has potential in the area of space exploration.
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