Electric energy dissipation and electric tortuosity in electron conductive cement-based materials
Name
PhysRevMaterials.4.125401.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.15 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1c55dc7b444e01255f0d597ff76dc262
Author(s)
Soliman, Nancy A
Chanut, Nicolas
Deman, Vincent
Lallas, Zoe
Ulm, Franz-Josef
Date Issued
December 2020
Journal
Physical Review Materials
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Citation
Nancy A. Soliman, Nicolas Chanut, Vincent Deman, Zoe Lallas, and Franz-Josef Ulm, Electric energy dissipation and electric tortuosity in electron conductive cement-based materials, Phys. Rev. Materials 4, 125401
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2020 American Physical Society. The emergence of multifunctional cement-based materials in the construction industry has the potential to shift the paradigm from strength-only performance to new functionalities enabled by electron conducting capabilities in one of the most material- and energy-intensive industry sectors worldwide. To enable such developments, we present results of a hybrid experimental-theoretical investigation of the electrical conductivity and resistive (Joule) heating of highly heterogeneous nanocarbon (nCB)-cement-based composites (pastes and mortars). By analogy with diffusivity, we find that electrical conductivity is determined by the electric tortuosity of a "volumetric wiring"permeating a highly heterogeneous matrix from percolation to saturation. From a combination of electrical conductivity and Joule heat rate measurements, we show that the electric energy dissipation at the origin of the Joule heating originates from spatial electric-field fluctuations, reminiscent of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We report that these fluctuations - in first order - are well captured by functional relations of the electric tortuosity of the composite material, and synthesize these observations into a first-order dissipation-tortuosity model. We suggest that harvesting the benefits of electron conducting cement-based materials, such as resistive heating, electromagnetic shielding, and energy storage, will ultimately focus on settling the competition between conductor concentration and electric tortuosity. Given the global environmental footprint of concrete, the results open venues for the sustainable development of concrete for existing and emerging green technology applications.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
MIT Energy Initiative
MultiScale Materials Science for Energy and Environment, Joint MIT-CNRS Laboratory
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVMATERIALS.4.125401
