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Dr. Mahmoud Taha Featured in STC Calendar and Home Page for September 2016

September 6, 2016

Mahmoud R. Taha, Ph.D.
Professor, Regents’ Lecturer and Chair, Department of Civil Engineering
Cross Appointments: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Center for Biomedical Engineering
The University of New Mexico

mahmoud tahaDr.  Taha has disclosed 18 inventions to STC, received two UNM-affiliated issued U. S. patents, and has seven pending patent applications for his polymer concretes, nanocomposites and composite technologies.

Dr. Taha’s polymer concrete technology combines latex-modified concrete and polymer concrete with carbon nanotubes. Over the last forty years polymer concrete has been used extensively in a wide range of applications because of its impermeability, good durability and adhesion. The addition of carbon nanotubes to polymer concrete significantly enhances its strength, deformability and fracture toughness. The new polymer concrete has superior fatigue strength. Furthermore, using carbon nanotubes also transforms polymer concrete into an electrically and thermally conductive material making it possible to monitor fatigue damage propagation in bridge deck overlays during service. The new polymer concrete technology opens new horizons for a new class of polymer concretes with improved characteristics and added sensing capabilities.

Dr. Taha’s polymer nanocomposite technology is an encapsulated polymer nanocomposite that can prevent crack propagation during injection by arresting crack growth at the crack tip. Crack repair in cement, concrete, glass, rock/geomaterials, brittle materials, and other substrates using polymer injection is a well-known and widely used technology. A major challenge of polymer injection technology, however, is the common risk of further propagating the crack inside the cement, rock or material body due to injection pressure, which the polymer nanocomposite material addresses. Dr. Taha’s new technology makes crack injection much easier to use, widening its applicability and implementation. This technology is particularly useful for wellbore environments.  A wellbore is a hole drilled for the purpose of exploration or extraction of natural resources such as water, gas or oil where a well may be produced and a resource extracted for a protracted period. Dr. Taha’s other pending patents include methods to transform carbon black solid waste to a precursor for making carbon fibers and a new class of ductile carbon fiber composites for infrastructure applications.

Dr. Taha’s research focuses on resilient infrastructure, structural health monitoring, composites and nanocomposites for energy and infrastructure applications and biomechanics.

Link to STC.