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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2245 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Beetle inspired 3D printed cement could lead to disaster proof buildings

Concrete is crazy strong under compression and crazy weak under tension. My mat sci is a generation old at this point but it sure looks like they're casting at a small enough size where the object of the game is to permit macrocellular flex prior to macrocellular shear. I mean, cement don't bend like that.

At a guess, the goal is to create a composite material matrix that mitigates concrete's piss-poor shear behavior while retraining it's strength under compression. Effectively they're trying to out-rebar rebar through math and chicanery.