Students

Arturo Cruz

Detecting 'Concrete Cancer', Queensland University of Technology

53 year-old Art was looking forward to a retirement filled with fishing when his daughter, a civil engineer, pointed out that Australia’s heritage buildings were in a world of trouble. Buildings like the Opera House and Brisbane City Hall were all built after the industrial revolution and took advantage of ‘new and synthetic’ materials like reinforced concrete. What our early architects didn’t predict was the dire structural problems caused by a phenomenon commonly know as ‘concrete cancer’. Like all cancers, early detection is paramount. Art has developed an instrument, very similar to an electronic tuning fork, that can be fixed temporarily or permanently to our heritage buildings. The ultra-small vibrations and sounds coming from the building can be transmitted electronically to a remote PC 24/7. By comparing changes from its normal vibrations, and by programming some inter-related algorithms, Art can then detect, locate and measure the damage of the onset of the ‘concrete cancer’. The state and federal governments are currently raising one billion dollars to save the Opera House from this very problem.