NANOTECHNOLOGY SYNTHESIS STUDY: RESEARCH REPORT

In this project, the authors investigated the potential nanotechnology applications in highway pavements mainly in two different categories: smart materials for pavement construction and sensors for transportation and pavement infrastructure condition monitoring. The smart materials are applicable to pavement construction including concrete, asphalt, aggregates, and pavement marking materials; and the sensors, including temperature sensor, strain sensor, pressure sensor, accelerometer, and moisture sensor, now form a reliable, accurate, low-cost network and are suitable for transportation and pavement infrastructure condition monitoring. Radio frequency (RF) microelectronic monitoring system (MEMS) technology is an advanced and innovative MEMS sensor technology which transmits MEMS sensor data wirelessly at a high speed securely. Ultra-low-cost RF MEMS sensors can be placed in pavements, bridges, and even inside concrete and asphalt in large quantities to form a local RF MEMS sensor network for different pavement infrastructure monitoring purposes. Nanomaterials are very attractive to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Though nanomaterials are still in the research and development stages and are not cost effective for implementation at this time, nano-based sensors are getting mature and can be used in TxDOT for monitoring and other applications. In order to demonstrate the applications of nanotechnology in transportation systems, a fully functional smart stop sign is developed and tested. This smart stop sign is able to detect any malfunction including direction change, fall down, or tilt and report wirelessly to the TxDOT office using nanosensors and MEMS radio technology.

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