As part of a project involving researchers from the University of Illinois, and the artificial intelligence division of Meta, an algorithm has been developed with the aim of creating greener and more resistant concretes. A field where AI can express itself, but where Mark Zuckerberg’s company was not expected.
Artificial intelligence has been put to use in the creation of new drugs, or the search for taste associations in the kitchen. But to make concrete, the principle is the same: mix ingredients. Nevertheless, the approximately 4 billion tonnes of concrete produced each year generate 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions. One solution would therefore be to make better concrete, in particular by improving its recipe.
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Combined with graphene, it becomes significantly more resistant to wear. Composed from waste from coal-fired power plants and synthetic fibres, it is then more ecological, and above all more flexible. Sometimes we want to reduce the share of cement, sometimes the share of aggregates, etc. The only point to respect being to replace a property by another at least equivalent, or the concrete will not be. The problem being that there are hundreds and hundreds of possible combinations. And this is where the AI comes into play.
The University of Illinois and Meta have created a trained algorithm to find new kinds of concrete. They used an already existing dataset roughly named Concrete Compressive Strength. It integrates multiple information, such as the physical capacities of concretes (drying, resistance, etc.), as well as more than 1,000 formulas. The results were then compared in the Environmental Product Declaration tool of the CSI (Cement Sustainability Initiative) which determines the carbon footprint of a material.
Lav Varshney and Nishant Garg. Two scientists who worked on the artificial intelligence project with Meta. Photography: Meta.
The 5 best formulas created by artificial intelligence have been further reprocessed in order to derive the one with the best characteristics. Once produced and poured in order to be put in real conditions, the concrete in question makes it possible to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 40%. It also uses 50% less cement, in favor of fly ash and slag.
On the occasion of a merger with the company Ozinga, Meta wishes to use its concrete for the construction of various buildings including a data center. A life-size test that is intended to be encouraging.