This document discusses transparent concrete, which is produced by embedding parallel optical fibers in concrete. This allows natural light to pass through exterior walls, reducing energy consumption. Transparent concrete has mechanical properties similar to conventional concrete but is more expensive due to the fibers. It has applications in interior and exterior building materials where natural light is needed. While costly now, transparent concrete may become more affordable and durable in the future as the technology develops.

1. Transparent concrete
by
Eng. MOHAMED AHMED ABD ELLATIEF
Under the Supervision of
PROF.AHMEDTAHWIA
Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University
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2. CONTENT
• INTRODUCTION
• THE CONCEPT OFTRANSPARENT CONCRETE
• LITERATURE REVIEW
• MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR TRANSPARENT CONCRETE
• TYPES OF OPTICAL FIBRE
• OPTICAL FIBRE ELEMENTS
• MECHANISM OF OPTICAL FIBRE
• COMPARISONWITH CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE.
 EXPERIMENTS OF SMARTTRANSPARENT CONCRETE
• APPLICATIONS OFTRANSPARENT CONCRETE
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
 CONCLUSION.
• REFERENCES
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3. INTRODUCTION
 Transparent Concrete or (Light Transmitting Concrete) can be
produced as prefabricated building blocks, the trick is done with
embedding parallel fibers of glass or plastic in a proprietary concrete
mixture.
 Transparent Concrete can help to reduce power consumption in
buildings by allowing natural light to shine into the building interior
through external walls
 Transparent concrete is one the new discoveries and subsequently
trends in the building industry, and it is being used to create
environmentally friendly and bright building material (green
concrete).
 The concept of transparent concrete was introduced by the young
Hungarian architect Aron Losonzi in 2001.
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4. THE CONCEPT OFTRANSPARENT CONCRETE
 The basic idea of transparent concrete is quite simple, and it can be
considered an eco-friendly, aesthetic and energy-saving technology.
 Transparent concretes created through the addition of transparent
material to concrete, which affects some of its properties. This
transparent or translucent alternative material allows light to pass
through the concrete. The performance of
 transparent concrete is similar to slits, enabling the transmission of
light through a body of concrete.
 There are two basic materials that are used to produce transparent
concrete fine concrete and light-transmitting material. Fine concrete
consists of cement, fine aggregate and water, while many materials
such as optical fibre, glass and plastic fibre can be added to create
transparent concrete .
 Optical fibre is most commonly used to produce transparent concrete
and consists of three parts: core, cladding and coating. The light
travels through the glass core Centre while the cladding surrounds the
core and reflects the light into it. The coating works to protect the
fibre from damage and moisture.
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5. LITERATURE REVIEW
 Bashbash et al. examined the mechanical impact of adding plastic
optical fibre into concrete. The results show that the compressive
strength of transparent concrete increases when the amount of
fibre increases; however, the flexural strength decreases as the
fibre percentage increases.
 Transparent concrete is based on the principle of total internal
reflection. When a light ray travels from a denser medium to a
rarer medium such that the angle of incidence is greater than
critical angle, the ray later reflects back to the same medium, and
in optical fiber this total internal refraction repeats numerous time
till it came out from the other end of fiber. Minor loss to the
energies can be observed.
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6. MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR TRANSPARENT
CONCRETE
 The transparent concrete consists of cement, water, sand and
specific quantities of optical fibre.
1. Cement – Transparent Concrete is generally used for transmit
light therefore no special cement is require for it. Ordinary
Portland cement can be used.
2. Sand - Sand passing through 1.18mm size sieve should be
used.
3. Water - Water is used for mix all ingredient of concrete. For
making transparent concrete portable water should be used.
4. Optical Fibre :optical fiber is a thin fiber of glass or plastic
material, usually cylindrical in shape which can transmit light
easily through it. It works on the principle of internal
refraction, thus allows sunlight to pass through it without
consuming energy. Optical fibers allows light to pass even at
an angle of more then 60. The most common diameter of
optical fibers lie within range of .2 mm to 1 mm.
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7. TYPES OF FIBRE
• Multimode step-index fiber
• Multimode graded-index fiber
• Single-mode step-index fibers.
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8. PTICAL FIBRE ELEMENTS
 Core - The thin glass center of the fiber where the light travels is
called core.
 Cladding - The outer optical material surrounding the core that
reflects the light back into the core. To confine the reflection in the
core, the refractive index of the core must be greater than that of
the cladding.
 Buffer Coating – This is the Plastic coating that protects the fiber
from damage and moisture.
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9. MECHANISM OF OPTICAL FIBRE
cladding
• An optical fibre is a cylindrical dielectrically wave that transmit
light along it by the process of Total internal reflection.
• It consists of a core surrounded by cladding layer.
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10. EXPERIMENTS OF SMARTTRANSPARENT
CONCRETE
 Transmitting performance of the smart transparent block
The light-transmittance ability of the specimens will test by an
electrical circuit set-up with a light-dependent resistor (LDR).
Optical Power Meter
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11. MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE OFTHE SMART
TRANSPARENT BLOCK
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12. Product Litracon- LightTransmitting
Concrete
Form Prefabricated blocks
Ingredients 96%concrete, 4% optical fibre
Density 2400-2100Kg/m2
Block size 600mm x 300mm
Thickness 25 – 500 mm
Colour White, Grey or Black
Fibre distribution Organic
Finished Polished
Compressive strength 50N/mm2
BendingTensile strength 7N/mm2
Properties of Transparent Concrete Blocks by Litracon Company
TECHNICAL DATA SHEET
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13.  Quantity of optical fiber is the rate influencing parameter.
 Life of Transparent concrete depends on the bending radius of
the optical fibers.
 Aesthetic appearance is comparably high.
 The parameters like bending strength, compressive strength,
density is similar to conventional concrete.
 They provide same structural performance as conventional
concrete.
COMPARISON WITH CONVENTIONAL CONCRETE
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14. ADVANTAGES
 Reduction of energy due to the penetration of daily light into the
object
 The main advantage of these products is that on large scale objects the
texture is still visible - while the texture of finer translucent concrete
becomes indistinct at distance.
 When a solid wall is imbued with the ability to transmit light, it means
that a home can use fewer lights in their house during daylight hours.
 It has very good architectural properties for giving good aesthetical
view to the building.
 Where light is not able to come properly at that place transparent
concrete can be used.
 Energy saving can be done by utilization of transparent concrete in
building.
 It is a part of green building
 It is economic, and saves huge amount of money to be expended over
electricity.
 100% environment friendly.
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15. DISADVANTAGES
 available only in the form of ready, it can't be made on the
building site
 The main disadvantage is these concrete is very costly because
of the optical fibres.
 Casting of transparent concrete block is difficult for the labour
so special skilled person is required.
 Natural or any artificial light passes through in the direction of
fibers laid; only at this condition shadow image appears on
darker side
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16. APPLICATIONS
• Illuminate the Walls
• Transparent concrete blocks suitable for floors,
pavements and load bearing walls.
• Facades, interior wall cladding and dividing
walls based on thin panels.
• Partitions wall and it can be used where the
sunlight does not reach properly.
• In furniture for the decorative and aesthetic
• Light fixtures.
• Light sidewalks at night.
• Increasing visibility in dark subway stations
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17. TRANSPARENT CONCRETE FUTURE
1- Cost
2- Cast in site
3- The durability of optical fibre
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18. CONCLUSION
 Transparent concrete developed by adding optical fibre or large
diameter glass fibre in the concrete mixture.
 The transparent concrete has good light guiding property and the
ratio of optical fibre volume to concrete is proportion to transmission.
 The transparent concrete not looses the strength parameter when
compared to regular concrete and also it has very vital property for
the aesthetical point of view.
 It can be used for the best architectural appearance of the building.
Also used where the light cannot reach with appropriate intensity.
 This new kind of building material can integrate the concept of green
energy saving with the usage self-sensing properties of functional
materials.
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19. REFERENCES
 Bhavin K. Kashiyani, Varsha Raina, Jayeshkumar Pitroda, Dr. Bhavnaben K. Shah: A
Study on Transparent Concrete: A Novel Architectural Material to Explore
Construction Sector, International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology
(IJEIT)Volume 2, Issue 8, February 2013
 Jianping He, Zhi Zhou, JinpingOu, Minghua Huang, “Study on Smart Transparent
Concrete Product and Its Performances”, Dalian, China, 2011.
 Retrieved from luccon: http://www.luccon.com/en/references
 Retrieved from litracon: http://www.litracon.hu/en
 Translucent insulated Concrete Panel (2013). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3oVZ3STC2c
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