Smart-Earth Multifunctional Cement Composites for Sustainable Constructions: Thermal and Sensing Characterization

In the last years, the sensitivity towards environmental impacts of in-dustrial activities is of growing interest. Construction sector, with particular ref-erence to cement-based materials, possess a high environmental footprint due to raw resources’ consumption and waste, energy use, greenhouse gasses emissions produced during the preparation of the construction materials and the build and service life of structures. A possible solution to decrease the impact of cementi-tious building materials is to develop novel multifunctional eco-friendlier binders for enhancing the thermal properties and sustainability of the material. The com-posite investigated in this paper is an earth cement composite doped with carbon microfibers, named “smart-earth concrete”. The material’s binder is composed by both cement and clay, in the proportion of 2/7 in volume. The carbon micro-fillers are added in order to enhance the sensitivity of the composite and provide multifunctional properties, such as sensitivity to mechanical strain and changes in physical conditions. The thermal and sensing capabilities of the smart-earth concrete are investigated through dynamic environmental tests and electrical ac-quisitions carried out on samples in thermal chamber under controlled changes in temperature and humidity. The innovative earth-cement composite demon-strated good thermal energy storage potential. Moreover, the electrical monitor-ing of the smart material allowed to properly identify temperature and humidity environmental fluctuations. The proposed composite appears promising for ap-plication in real-scale constructions, enhancing the energy efficiency of the struc-tures and providing sensing capability for their monitoring during their service.