Enhancing Concrete Life in Infrastructure through Phase Change Systems (ECLIPS) is an Arizona State University multi-national project funded through the Infravation (an Infrastructure Innovation Program) grant of the European Union (EU). European Concrete Paving Association (EUPAVE) and the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) are in charge of the 
dissemination of the ECLIPS project and main outcomes. ECLIPS is working on the incorporation of phase change materials with a suitable phase transition temperature, enthalpy of phase change, and degree of dispersion in the concrete.
Main Goals of ECLIPS:
• Select appropriate PCMs of suitable phase transition temperature, enthalpy, and formulate robust methods of delivery
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) model to quantify the environmental and economic benefits of the technology that improves life of concrete in road infrastructure
• Prototype concretes in different environments to evaluate the real-life performance
Early- and late-age thermal cracking in reinforced concrete elements and freeze-thaw related deterioration in concretes exposed to temperatures cycling around the freezing point of water are sources of concern to owners and managers of infrastructure assets around the world. This is a considerable issue with numerous transportation structures (pavements, bridges etc.), often requiring premature repair/replacement or incurring exceedingly high maintenance costs during their service-life.
ECLIPS tackles this problem by incorporating phase change materials (PCMs) with a suitable phase transition temperature, enthalpy of phase change, and degree of dispersion in the concrete. PCMs are combined sensible-and-latent thermal storage materials that can be used to store and dissipate energy in the form of heat. The heat absorption and release response helps to maintain a constant internal system temperature until the phase-transition is completed. The ability to incorporate PCMs into the concrete matrix has implications on enhancing concrete performance.
ECLIPS FIRST TECHNOTE: “Characterizing Cementitious Materials Containing Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials“—concerns microstructural and thermal characterization of cementitious systems containing Phase Change Materials (PCMs). The technical note contains various type of information such as what PCMs are, methods to incorporate them in concrete and its benefits on concrete. To download the FIRST TECHNOTE, please click on the image(s) below, or go to: http://www.eupave.eu/documents/graphics/eclips/eclips-newsletterspring2016.pdf.
For the ECLIPS website, please got o: https://eclips.asu.edu/?lang=en
For questions, please go to: E-mail: eclips@asu.edu
