Advanced concrete materials for EMI reduction in protected environment and IEMI threats suppression

The enhancement of microwave shielding effectiveness of commercial concrete by the inclusion of carbon nanotubes powder is addressed and experimental testified. A microwave characterization is performed by direct measurements of materials dielectric parameters in the frequency range 1.7–2.6 GHz. A significant lowering of the microwave transmission magnitude is founded for the nanoreinforced material respect to the naked concrete. The results allow to evaluate the microwave shielding capability of wallshaped concrete structures: a shielding effectiveness grater than 50 dB is achieved for a 30 cm thick wall with carbon nanotube filling percentage of 3wt%. The route of nanoparticles filling within the composite mixture is straightforwardly included in the concrete typical on-site manufacturing procedures, thus planning out a time/cost saving procedure with the final aim to promote such typology of materials for commercial purpose in the next future. The here reported preliminary findings pave the way for the employment of carbon nano-powder reinforced concrete in building walls, in order to deal with issues related to the electromagnetic interference mitigation, such as the influence on the medical devices working in hospital environments as well as the increasing of protection against electromagnetic attacks to strategic targets and sensible places.