Smart beams : from now the beams are connected to the building's brain.

There are four basic forces in nature: The strong force, the weak force, the gravitational force and the electromagnetic force.

In the field of the structural analysis and design of buildings, we are dealing most of the time with the gravitational force, even so the seismic force is expressed as a fraction of the gravitational force g.

Let's consider a typical beam, it support the gravitational loads upon it in a direct correlation with the flexural strength capacity of the material is made of and the size of the cross section.

Of course, every structural element is designed taking into account a security factor to cover the cases where the element is being loaded above their design load.

Now, let’s imagine your arm is a structural element, a beam or a column depending of the direction of the action, but let’s suppose is a beam.

Your arm can carry on a light weight using only the static capacity of your arm muscles and bones, but in case you want to support a heavy weight, your brain send an electrochemical signal to the fibers of your muscles to enhance the overall strength of your arm in order to support the load.

Now you can understand the concept, we are introducing about the smart beams, which the flexural strength capacity is enhanced by an electromagnetic induction field through the activation of some special fibers located underneath the beam neutral axis in the bending zone.

In this way, the smart beams can act like the muscles, using an additional strength when required, for instance in the case of the occurrence of occasional big external forces like earthquakes, tornados, floods and impacts.

In the case of reinforced concrete beams, the steel provides the bending strength capacity and the concrete provides the compression capacity. There are also the prestressed concrete and the post-tensioned concrete. By tensioning the high strength tendons located within the concrete, the prestressed and post-tensioned concrete improve the performance of the concrete in service.

Likewise, the special fiber placed on the smart beam will tensioning the concrete in real time once get the proper signal from the diodes.

From now, our beams and columns get clever, since now are connected to the building´s brain like our muscles are connected to their motor neurons.