Nagpur: Watermelon seeds, only known for the quality of its nutrition until now, can also be used to strengthen and cure concrete structures, thanks to new techniques developed by the Civil Engineering Research Team at the Vnsvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT).
Led by Associate Professor Madhumati Latkar, the researchers prove that ownership using watermelon seeds can strengthen and cure concrete structures in ways that are cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
After this study, a patent was given by the Indian patent office to Latkar’s main investigator and his team.
This research was conducted given the increasing demand for long-lasting building materials and the need for efficient techniques to increase the physio-mechanical properties of cement.
“Structural resistance is the main problem, and a large amount of money has been invested in it.
At present, a number of chemical mixing is used for cracking healing and increasing the durability of the structure.
Using Chemical Admixtures has many weaknesses such as high costs and environmental pollution,” said Latkar.
The team has worked for the past six years in the field of post-announcement to find out some innovative ways to strengthen and cure cement-based materials.
The researchers claimed the posting of watermelon seeds was an environmentally friendly and economic approach to improve the strength of the structure, and also the best solution for healing structures.
One of the famous researchers in the field of post-management, Latkar has published several research articles in honorable international journals and has four patents for their credit.
“Watermelon seeds are magical beans when it comes to giving strength to cement materials,” he said.
Watermelon seeds are rich in an enzyme called urease.
This enzyme is a key player in the process of posting, causing an increase in the strength of the cement material.
Snigdha Bhutange, a team member, conducted several experiments to build the reliability of work statistics.
Tapan Chakrabarti, former Director, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neer), Nagpur, and former Professor Chair (MPCB), VNIT, Nagpur, guided the team.
Latkar reported an increase of around 22% in press strength and reduction of 19% in water absorption, in concrete specimens mixed seeds compared to conventional concrete.
Biocemented concrete also qualifies various durability tests, and is actually proven significantly more durable than conventional concrete.
This technology also proved very good at healing concrete cracks.
Ties Info with Magic Beans * Traditional Pememonation Techniques Involve the use of ureolithic bacteria * Factors such as bacterial involvement, nutritional requirements to foster bacterial supervision and experts to achieve goals can limit the application of ownership in place using bacteria powder seeds instead of the urease source All these losses * reduce overall costs, because they do not require special supervision or maintenance as needed for ureolithic bacteria * Seed storage and maintenance is much easier than bacteria, thus making this process can be practiced * Watermelon seeds, which are low quality and are considered material Waste, can be used effectively for ownership purposes to make practical and economical processes * Laboratory scale studies have shown excellent results in increasing the strength and healing of concrete cracks using this technology * Validation in the TEC Field This is HNOGY starts.
After the implementation of the field is determined, this technique will definitely be proven to be the main tool in achieving sustainable development