April 03, 2007 by Marco Zennaro | No comments
‘Self-healing’ house in Greece will dare to defy nature
A high-tech villa designed to resist earthquakes by ‘self-healing’ cracks in its own walls and monitoring vibrations through an intelligent sensor network will be built on a Greek mountainside.
The University of Leeds’ NanoManufacturing Institute (NMI) will play a crucial role in the 9.5 million European Union-funded project by developing special walls for the house that contain nano polymer particles – these will turn into a liquid when squeezed under pressure, flow into the cracks, and then harden to form a solid material.
NMI chief executive Professor Terry Wilkins said: “What we’re trying to achieve here is very exciting; we’re looking to use polymers in much tougher situations than ever before on a larger scale.”
The complete story here.
