• Quick-curing concrete for infrastructure, mining disaster recovery

    A quick-curing concrete can be sprayed to reinforce structures — buildings, runways, tunnels, bridges, dams – damaged by an act of terror or natural disaster; the spraying can be done almost immediately, before the structure fails catastrophically, providing safety for rescue workers who risk their lives minutes after disasters hit, and for still stranded in or near the damaged structure

  • New research to improve protection and recovery from major floods

    As parts of the United Kingdom suffer further flooding with more heavy rain forecast, three research projects funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) could radically change the way U.K. government and local authorities prepare for and respond to floods, mitigating future risks

  • Fire risks to increase in some regions of the world

    Climate change is expected to disrupt future fire patterns around the world, with some regions, such as the western United States, seeing more frequent fires within the next thirty years; at the same time, fire activity could actually decrease around equatorial regions, particularly among the tropical rainforests, because of increased rainfall

  • Hurricane Ike damage analysis point to vulnerable Texas bridges

    Preliminary results from a new research show more than a dozen Gulf Coast bridges on or near Galveston Island would likely suffer severe damage if subjected to a hurricane with a similar landfall as Hurricane Ike but with 30 percent stronger winds

  • Ancient design concept leads to new ideas for building durable bridges

    Engineers combine an ancient concrete arch form, dating back to the Roman empire, with a composite shell to create bridge beams which are designed to last 100 years

  • Nuclear, coal-fired electrical plants vulnerable to climate change

    Thermoelectric plants, which use nuclear or fossil fuels to heat water into steam that turns a turbine, supply more than 90 percent of U.S. electricity and account for 40 percent of the U.S. freshwater usage; in Europe, these plants supply three-quarters of the electricity and account for about half of the freshwater use; warmer water and reduced river flows in the United States and Europe in recent years have led to reduced production, or temporary shutdown, of several thermoelectric power plants; a new study says this problem will only grow

  • California coastal planners protect infrastructure from climate change

    California’s coastal planners and resource managers say there is a need to prepare for changes along the coast that might result from rising sea levels and other impacts, such as more floods, loss of beach access, coastal erosion, and potential damage to transportation infrastructure, including highways, roads, and ports

  • Removing CO2 from the flues of coal-fired power plants

    The current method of removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flues of coal-fired power plants uses so much energy that no one bothers to use it; scientists have developed an entirely new catalyst for separating out and capturing CO2, one that mimics a naturally occurring catalyst operating in our lungs

  • Explaining uneven rise in sea levels

    If there is a global warming trend, one of its consequences would a rise in sea levels, which will require massive mitigation efforts to protect coastal infrastructure; rather than a uniform rise in sea level, however, the records show sea levels rising in some areas and dropping in others; Harvard researchers offer an explanation for this phenomenon

  • Groundbreaking tests to offer better understanding of post-earthquake fires

    Post-earthquake fires are a well-known and serious hazard, but very little is known about the performance of fire protection systems in earthquakes; groundbreaking tests to be conducted next week are aimed at better understanding of the effects of earthquakes on building systems designed to suppress or prevent the spread of fires

  • McAfee, Intel collaborate on protecting energy infrastructure

    McAfee and Intel will collaborate on improving the protection of the world’s energy utilities, including generation, transmission, and distribution, from increased cyber attacks; the two companies have provided a blueprint for a comprehensive solution of multiple products which create layers of security and operate together without great complexity or without impacting availability

  • Fears of cyber espionage hinder U.S. license to China Mobile

    Serious concerns over cyberspying have fueled a debate among U.S. national security agencies about whether communications giant China Mobile should be granted a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to provide international service to American customers

  • Calibrating volume of U.S. petroleum flow

    Per capita consumption of petroleum in the United States is ten liters per day; there are 300 million people in the United States, so this means that three billion liters, or about nineteen million barrels, of petroleum are moving around across the United States in pipelines, waterways, roads, and rails each day; with crude oil priced around $100 a barrel, this comes to about $2 billion worth of petroleum

  • Using nanomaterials to build safer, longer-lasting roadways

    Asphalt is now made from petroleum, so it is very expensive; researchers tested two types of nanoclays, adding 2-4 percent by weight to asphalt; this is a smidgeon — less than half of a percent of the total weight of the asphalt pavement itself, but it made a big difference, and could make for safer, longer-lasting roadways

  • Protecting U.S. bridges from terrorism, accident

    More than 600,000 bridges in the United States are 20-feet long or longer, some over a century old, many of them national iconic monuments; DHS, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are conducting a series of tests aiming to make the bridges better able to withstand a terrorist attack; this research is discovering how materials, connection details, and designs in aging bridges react to IEDs, other explosives, kinetic impact, intense fires, and other accidents