Ms. Rahil Khoshnazar was a really kind and gentle professor! After tromping through the heavy snow in bitter weather, I felt very pleasant and cozy in Ms. Khoshnazar’s office at the University of Calgary campus. I had a very memorable conversation with her and one of her graduate students, Mr. Ali Teymouri. As civil engineer researchers, they are both highly knowledgeable in the material science of concrete.

We jumped straight into the idea of creating concretene (flash graphene with concrete) PCCP pipelines. While they did see the potential in this idea, they posed two major concerns:

1. The cost of graphene is quite expensive. Ali has worked with graphene before, and he explained that the graphene he bought overseas was not cheap. What ideas often fail to account for when being implemented is the cost. However, they have never heard of flash joule heating before—-it’s a nascent technique of producing flash graphene—so perhaps creating flash graphene could reduce these costs.
   1. According to the video down below, Bingxuan and I could “do a poor man’s version of [flash graphene] with only [a] arc welder and a few wires”. Is this true? How can I be certain? That’s why I am absolutely going to try and create flash graphene at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Et8FEbCuCs

1. Mixing the flash graphene into the concrete is not as easy as it seems. A uniform flash graphene-concrete requires huge agitation systems. In Ms. Khoshnazar’s research lab, they can create uniform mixtures through the mechanism of ultrasonic mixing—as high-frequency sound waves can create intense shear forces that break down particles and promote dispersion. Creating non-uniform concrete mixtures with flash-graphene will result in points of structural weakness within the concrete. These varying strengths would most likely result in potential structural failures. While thoroughly mixing the two substances together is key, this equipment is expensive and difficult to make ubiquitous.

Websites that Ms. Khoshnazar recommended us to look into:

• American Concrete Institute: https://www.concrete.org/
• Cement Association of Canada: https://cement.ca/

Recommendations:

• Ms. Khoshnazar recommended that we also look into other methods of enhancing the tensile strength of concrete, specifically through the addition of rebars or even through external coatings.
• Ask Suncor about the cement and water ratio of the Feeder Main pipeline that burst open. This ratio is most likely not the most optimal nor efficient. Therefore, begin experimenting with the ratio of cement and water at home. Finding the most optimal cement and water ratio would be a great starting point for further research.
  • In addition, I want to try to create flash graphene at home. It’s such an exciting technique that was born in 2020. What’s there to hinder me?
• Once we have created the initial mixture of cement and water, we should allow it to develop its strength in a heated, indoor environment. Why? Because it actually takes time for concrete to develop its strength—much like how a newborn acquires skill and strength over time. In this sense, concrete is very much alive. After about 28 days (though this number slightly does vary depending on the context), the tensile and compressive strength of the concrete is ready to be studied, and the concrete itself is ready to be brought outside for outdoor use.
  • Many construction workers fail to recognize that concrete requires this “nurturing” time period, which is why concrete structures can fail if they are implemented right after being manufactured.

Overall, my conversation with Ms. Khoshnazar was pretty rewarding. Now, I understand the feasibility of creating concretene PCCP pipelines, and I am ready to conduct physical experimentation at home. In the end, Ms. Khoshnazar, Ali, Bingxuan and I exchanged out LinkedIns. I want to continue to stay in touch with her to discuss the results of my experimentation at home.