A type of concrete having light transmitting property

1. i
TRASNPARENT CONCRETE
LITRACON
BY:REBAZ.Y. AHMED

2. ii
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION: ..................................................................................................................... 1
2. HISTROY OF TRANSPARENT CONCRETE: ........................................................................ 1
3. MANEFACTARING PROCESS: .............................................................................................. 2
4. MATERIAL USED FOR TRANSPARENT CONCRETE:....................................................... 3
5. PROPERTIES:............................................................................................................................ 5
5.1. COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH:........................................................................................... 7
5.2. FLEXURAL STRENGTH:.................................................................................................. 8
6. ADVANTEGE.......................................................................................................................... 10
7. DISADVANTAGES:................................................................................................................ 10
8. EXAMPLES: ............................................................................................................................ 11
8.1. EUROPEAN GATE........................................................................................................... 11
8.2. CELLA SEPTICHORA VISITOR CENTRE:................................................................... 12
8.3. MONTBLANC BOUTIQUE, TOKYO, JAPAN: ............................................................. 14
8.4. NEW HEADQUARTERS OF BANK OF GEORGIA:..................................................... 15
8.5 Italian Pavilion:................................................................................................................... 16
9. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 17
10. Reference: ............................................................................................................................... 18

3. 1
1. INTRODUCTION:
Translucent concrete (Translucent concrete) is new technique different from normal
concrete.[1,2] Translucent concrete allow more light and less weight compared to normal
concrete. The use of sunlight source of light instead of using electrical energy is main purpose of
translucent concrete, so as to reduce the load on non- renewable sources and result it into the
energy saving. Optical fibers is a sensing or transmission element, so decrease the use of
artificial light, the normal concrete is replaced by translucent concrete, which has natural lighting
and art design.[1,3]
2. HISTROY OF TRANSPARENT CONCRETE:
In 2001 the idea of transparent concrete was put forward by Hungarian architect Aron Losonzi.
Successfully produced the first transparent concrete block in 2003, named LiTraCon. In 2004, he
started a German company named [LiTraCon] and started producing [Litracon] commercially.
Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi, etc. invented LTCM [1], and named it as LiTracon
[abbreviation of light transmitting concrete] in 2002. The product was blocks of polished
prefabricated fiber Concrete and its composition was 96% concrete and 4% fiber. The Maximum
dimension of blocks is
600 mm _ 300 mm, and the Colors of them were grey, black or white.
These products have been used in Hungary, America, France, Belgium,
Germany and Japan.

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3. MANEFACTARING PROCESS:
The manufacturing process of transparent concrete is almost same as regular concrete Light-
transmitting concrete is produced by adding 4% to 5% optical fibers by volume into the concrete
mixture. [5, 14, 20 ]
• The concrete mixture is made from fine materials and does not contain coarse aggregate.
• Thousands of strands of optical fibers are cast into concrete to transmit light
• Smaller or thinner layers allow an increased amount of light to pass through the concrete.
• Small layers of the concrete are poured into a mould and fibers are infused in it. Newer, semi-
automatic production processes use woven fiber fabric instead of single filaments. Fabric and
concrete are alternately inserted into moulds at intervals of approximately
2 mm to 5mm [5]. A mechanical grinder was used for cutting the ends of the translucent
concrete, owing to the absence of a splicing machine. [5, 21] Fig.3. shown translucent concrete
cubes
Fig.3 Transparent Concrete Cubes
•Another method - Many holes are punched on side walls of the mould. Optical fibers have to be
run through these holes from one end to the other. Concrete is poured into it

5. 3
4. MATERIAL USED FOR TRANSPARENT CONCRETE:
There are two basic materials used for making transparent concrete, one is from construction
field and another from sensing field. • Fine concrete • Optical fibers
[6, 9, 17] Fine concrete : Consists of cement and fine aggregate such as sand concrete is one of
the most important civil engineering materials with the advantages of rich raw materials, low
cost and simple production process and second the Optical fiber consists of three layers called as
core, cladding and buffer coating or jacket. The light is transmitted through the core of the
optical fiber. [4,18] optical fiber: has good light guiding property which can be arrange to
transmit The light and the sun light transmit according to redesign Road without light-heat, light-
electrical or photochemical process, and photo elastic effect which can be used to study the stress
distribution of structures. Combining the advantages of the concrete and optical fiber, developing
a novel functional material called transparent concrete [9, 18] has an important value in the
application of construction and sensing. Types of optical fibre
There are three basic types of optical fibers:
[1] Multimode graded-index fiber
[2] Multimode step-index fiber
[3] Single-mode step-index fibers.
Fig. 4.1: types of fiber
A multimode fiber can propagate hundreds of light modes at one time while single-mode fibers
only propagate one mode as shown fig. 4.1
Since the single-mode fibers propagate light in one clearly defined path,
intermodal dispersion effects is not present, allowing the

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fiber to operate at larger bandwidths than a multimode fiber. On the other hand, multimode fibers
have large intermodal dispersion effects due to the many light modes of propagations it handles
at one time. Small size of the fibers, they blend into concrete becoming a component of the
material like small pieces of aggregate. In this manner, the result is not mixed material like glass
in concrete but a new material, which is homogeneous in its inner structure as well as on its main
surfaces. The optical fibers lead light by points between the two sides of the blocks. Because of
their parallel position, the light-information on the brighter side of such a wall appears
unchanged on the darker side. The most interesting form of this phenomenon is probably the
sharp display of shadows on the opposing side of the wall. Moreover, the color of the light also
remains the same.

7. 5
5. PROPERTIES:
The properties of light transmitting concrete are determined by conducting various experiments
like compressive strength test and flexural strength [9, 10 , 11] A typical transparent concrete
block is shown in fig: 5.1.
Fig: 5.1: Transparent concrete block

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Table.1 Properties of Transparent Concrete Blocks By Litracon Company

9. 7
5.1. COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH:
By definition, the compressive strength of a material is that value of uniaxial
Compressive stress reached when the material fails completely. The compressive strength is
usually obtained experimentally by means of a compressive test [12, 22]. The compressive
strength of the concrete is determined by cast the cubes of size 150mmx150mmx150mm. [22,
23, 24]
Compressive strength = load/area.
The compressive strength of the conventional concrete and light transmitting concrete in 7, 14
and 28 days is shown in figure: 5.2.
Mix proportions
Cement – 360 kg
Sand – 560 kg
Fiber – 4.5 kg
Water – 190 lit
Fig: 5.2: Compressive strength of the concrete

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5.2. FLEXURAL STRENGTH:
The flexural strength of the concrete is determined by conducting the test on prism by two points
loading.
Flexural strength = Pl/bd2
Where,
P – Load
l – Length of the specimen
b – Width of the prism
d – Depth of the prism
The flexural strength of the conventional concrete and light transmitting concrete having mix
proportion as above in 7, 14 and 28 days is shown in
Fig
5.3: Flexural strength of concrete
The flexural strength result of decorative concrete are correlated with results of ordinary plain
cement concrete. The results evidently show that the performance of litracon based on the
strength aspect is also considerably high. Hence the application of optical fiber will make the
concrete decorative as well as can make the concrete structural efficient.
Thus the study concludes that the transparency of light is possible in concrete without affecting
its compressive strength [24, 25, 26], as the optical fibers act as fiber reinforcement thereby
enhancing the strength and also enhances appearance.5.3

11. 9
Some other properties of light transmitting concrete are:
•Permits the passage of light through the set concrete, permitting colors, shapes and outlines to
be seen through it.
•Having Compressive strength-50-220 N/mm2
•Having maximum water absorption of 0.35%.
•Having a maximum oxygen index of 25%.
•Having a thermal conductivity of 0.21 W/m °C.
•Having a flexural Strength of 7.7 N/mm2
•Having an elastic limit greater than 60 MPa.
•Having a Density from 2100 to 2400 kg/m3
•Having a Young's Modulus from 2750 MPa to 3450 MPa
•From its characteristics and composition, can be a conductor of electricity, dispensing with
interior.
•From its mechanical and optical characteristics, can be used for purposes that are both
architectural and aesthetic, and also structural and under conditions of service equal to and even
different from those of a traditional concrete. [5, 10, 22]

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6. ADVANTEGE
•The main advantage of transparent concrete is that it can transmit light; it means that a home
can use fewer lights in their house during daylight hours. [6, 16, 19]
•It has very good architectural properties for giving good aesthetical view to the building where
light is not able to come properly at that. [19]
•Transparent concrete uses sunlight as source of light instead of electrical energy and reduces
power consumption. This concrete can also be used cold countries to transmit heat with sunlight.
[6, 16, 19]
•Totally environment friendly because of its light transmitting characteristics.
7. DISADVANTAGES:
•The main disadvantage is that these concrete has a very high initial cost because of the optical
fibers.[13,16]
•Casting of translucent concrete block is difficult for the labor, so special skilled person is
required. [16]
•Its factory product. [16]

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8. EXAMPLES:
8.1. EUROPEAN GATE
European gate is an artistic installation which was designed to mark the celebration of Hungary
joining the European Union (EU), located at the public entrance of Fortress Monitoring the
Hungarian town of Komarom. This is one of the most impressive pieces of art conjugating visual
lighting display as well as artistic using translucent concrete. The sun illuminates the 37.6ft large
Litracon piece of the statue in the mornings and late afternoons, and by night an even more
impressive view can be seen because of the embedded light sources [27, 22]. Day and night view
of European gate is shown in
fig: 8.1.
Fig 8.1: Day and night view of European gate

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8.2. CELLA SEPTICHORA VISITOR CENTRE:
The 2 tons heavy Litracon door serves as the main entrance of the Visitors Centre. It was made
out of 48pcs of 10cm thick blocks. The blocks are in steel frame to be able to move the structure.
On daytime, one can see the shadows of the pedestrians and the surrounding trees from inside.
By night, the door is illuminated from inside [22]. Day view and night view of litracon door is
shown in fig 8.3 and fig: 8.4.
Fig 8.3: Day view of litracon door from inside

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Fig 8.4: Night view of litracon door

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8.3. MONTBLANC BOUTIQUE, TOKYO, JAPAN:
Litracon blocks (600x300x30mm) were used to create a wall that works as a free-standing
sculptural element in this flagship boutique for Montblanc. As much as 30 Esq. of white Litracon
was used. The illumination ensures that light and shadow constantly do a dance on the
wall.Fig:8.5 shows a transparent wall transmitting sunlight to interior of the montblanc boutique
[22]
Fig 8.5: Montblanc boutique

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8.4. NEW HEADQUARTERS OF BANK OF GEORGIA:
The office building is characterized by an amazing architecture and has been the headquarter of
the Georgian ministry for highway engineering before becoming headquarter of Bank of
Georgia, Tbilisi, with a total area of 10.960 square meters[22]. It consists of five horizontal two-
storied building parts which are arranged like stacks. Thousands of embedded optical fibers are
channeling the light through the translucent concrete of wall and counter cladding. Walls, walks,
receptions, offices and consultation desks are shinning and glowing from within. An office room
of bank can be seen in
fig: 8.6.
Fig 8.6: New headquarters of bank of Georgia

18. 16
8.5 Italian Pavilion:
The Italian pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 also uses the light transmitting concrete
in the building. The transparent blocks of concrete were interspersed with opaque blocks to
create a seamless façade that allows diffused light at certain areas and emanates a glow at night.
Fig 8.1 Transparent concrete on Italian Pavilion

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9. Conclusion
Transparent concrete can be developed by adding optical fiber or large diameter glass fiber in the
concrete mixture. It has good light guiding property and the ratio of optical fiber volume to
concrete is proportionate to transmission of light. It doesn’t loose the strength parameter when
compared to regular concrete and also it has very vital property from the aesthetic point of view.
This new kind of building material can integrate the concept of green energy saving.
The strengths of LTCM were slightly smaller than that of cement Mortar without optical fibers.
As the volume fraction of optical Fibers increased, the strengths of specimens decreased
gradually.

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10. Reference:
[1] http://www.litracon.hu/.
[2] http://forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2268.
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21. 19
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[16 ] www.inventorspot.com
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