The new paradigm of designing construction composites to protect the human environment

• Main Authors: Valery S. Lesovik, Ekaterina V. Fomina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (MGSU) 2019-10-01
• Series: Vestnik MGSU
• Subjects: human; environment; geonics; geomimetics; construction materials science; construction composite; transdisciplinarity
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.22227/1997-0935.2019.10.1241-1257

Introduction. The negative effects of the environment is increasingly reflected in the health of the human. With the development of nature-like technologies, the main task of scientists around the world is to create comfortable conditions for human existence on the Earth. This primarily relates to the construction industry, as materials for 80 to 90 % of his/her life surround the human. The purpose of the work is to develop the fundamental foundations for creating new generation composites to protect the human environment based on transdisciplinary approaches, including the theoretical principles of geonics (geomimetics). Materials and methods. The work was based on the study and analysis of published sources and personal experience. The new paradigm of science is based on transdisciplinary research with transferring cognitive patterns between disciplines. To test the results of theoretical studies, high-tech equipment and modern research methods, such as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, scanning and atomic force microscopy, IR spectral analysis, thermal analysis methods, etc. were used at the Shared-Use Center on the base of BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov, Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, RAS Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics named after V.A. Kotelnikov and NIISF RAASN. Results. Generalized view of innovative practical and scientific activity allowed formulating the problems of innovative development of construction materials science, where the main constraint is the lack of use of available knowledge from various fields of science, such as physics, chemistry, crystal chemistry, mineralogy, etc. in terms of transdisciplinarity. The focus is on the multi-component materials, which are designed on the base of the synergism of different physical and chemical parameters. Conclusions. Transdisciplinary nature of new science-intensive research allows solving complex problems in the traditional, allied and new fields of science, more efficient using natural, energy and financial resources, as well as facilitates the development of new paradigms of engineering. Implementation of such approaches has already yielded to obtain a new generation of composites protecting people from the impact of aggressive environmental factors and will enable innovative breakthroughs in the future. Acknowledgements. The research was realized owing to the resources of the State Programme of the Russian Federation “Development of Sciences and Technologies” for the years 2013 to 2020, the Programme of fundamental scientific research of the State Academies of Sciences for the years 2013 to 2020, within the framework of the Plan of fundamental scientific research of the Ministry of Construction Industry, Housing and Utilities Sector of the Russian Federation and Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences, Topic 7.5.1.; a reference university development programme based on BSTU named after V.G. Shoukhov with use of equipment of the High Technology Center at BSTU named after V.G. Shoukhov.