Aerocement

Triple-utility passive solar-thermal concrete system — open-source hardware for decentralized energy infrastructure.

AeroCement turns ordinary concrete into a multifunctional energy infrastructure material. A single structure provides solar-thermal energy capture, underground thermal storage, and load-bearing structural capacity simultaneously. It is part of the OpenRoot ecosystem — a decentralized permaculture governance framework integrating thermodynamics, axiom-based governance, and proof-of-physical-work token mechanics.The system is designed for deployability in low-resource environments using locally available materials (concrete, sand, aggregate, zirconium additives) and passive physics (no moving parts except airflow and optional Stirling/TEG discharge).

Volumetric open-cell blackbody concrete panels absorb approximately 95-98% of incident solar radiation. Air is drawn through microscopic pores in the concrete, heating as it passes through the volumetric matrix. Unlike surface-coating solar collectors, the entire volume participates in heat exchange.

Heated air flows through an insulated underground labyrinth filled with porous concrete. The labyrinth forces air into contact with every microscopic pore surface, maximizing thermal transfer to the surrounding ground battery. The system is open-loop — it breathes fresh ambient air and exhausts cooled air, rather than recirculating a sealed fluid.

An insulated ground battery retains thermal energy across multiple diurnal cycles. Soil and concrete mass provide high volumetric heat capacity at low cost.

Stored thermal energy is converted to electricity via Stirling engine or thermoelectric generator (TEG). The temperature differential between the hot battery and ambient/night sky serves as the thermodynamic driver.

The core material is AE-GFRC (Aerated Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) with zirconium substitution:

• Aerated structure enables low-pressure pneumatic pumping (higher volume, lower pressure than conventional concrete)
• Glass fiber reinforcement provides tensile strength without steel rebar
• Zirconium substitution improves thermal durability and radiative absorption properties
• Open-cell porosity is engineered for optimal airflow-to-surface-area ratio

Warning

All metrics below are from unvalidated simulations. Physical testing is needed to confirm.

• Nightly thermal capture: ~12.91 kWh/m²
• 7-night accumulation (10m² collector): ~82.98 kWh
• Stirling discharge output: ~24.89 kWh at 3.11 kW
• System architecture: Open-loop (breathes ambient air)
• Cold sink options: Ambient air, night-sky radiative cooling, or deep-space equivalent (3K theoretical)

• Documentation and hardware designs: CC-BY-SA-4.0
• Software and code: GPL-3.0
• Copyright holder: One Human Family (collective attribution)

AeroCement integrates with the OpenRoot Proof of Physical Work (PoPW) framework and the ACRE token. Physical deployment of thermal infrastructure earns tokens proportional to verified energy capacity installed — linking digital governance to real-world productive output.

• H-001: Pumped aerated GFRC (completed) — validated that aerated concrete requires significantly lower pumping pressure than conventional mix
• H-002: Delta-T thermal vehicle (completed) — conceptual thermal-gradient propulsion system
• H-003: Thermal cascade (active) — multi-stage thermal energy cascade with insulated ground battery, underground labyrinth, and Stirling/TEG discharge

• GitHub: https://github.com/jesseray718/aerocement
• OpenRoot: https://github.com/jesseray718/openroot
• Zenodo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21210931
• IPFS: QmcMjnAVN9FbQ77VwMPMCteb93U7W4REdZmZbPqoMBE4F
• GitHub Pages: https://jesseray718.github.io/aerocement/

See the issue tracker and CONTRIBUTING.md on GitHub. The project seeks collaborators in:

• Material science (concrete rheology, zirconium substitution ratios)
• Thermal engineering (Stirling sizing, TEG selection, labyrinth geometry)
• Physics verification (simulation validation, Carnot analysis review)
• Construction prototyping (field deployable mixing and pumping methods)

Researchers contributing meaningful verification or refinement are offered co-authorship on resulting publications.