Acquisition of Specialized Testing Equipment for Advanced Cement-based Materials

Status

Sequential Number

Matching Research Agency

Principal Investigator

Student Involvement

Project Objective

This equipment purchase will enable the development, manufacturing, and implementation of advanced and sustainable materials for transportation infrastructure, with emphasis on concrete. The developments of “green” technologies that can lead to cost savings are of prime interest.  This will include projects dealing with the performance of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) in cast-in-place bridge superstructure and substructure elements, use of high volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC) in infrastructure applications, the performance of roller compacted concrete (RCC) for rigid concrete pavement for highways, rural roads, and airfield pavements, as well as the feasibility of using high contents of reclaimed asphalt pavement and reclaimed asphalt roofing shingles in flexible pavement mixtures. The common denominator of these technologies is savings of construction duration and cost, and reduction in the carbon footprint of construction materials and activities.

Anticipated Benefits

The Metering Unit and Test Fixtures will enhance the composite research activities at Missouri S&T. Faculty and students of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, and Chemistry will be able to use the equipment. The equipments will also be available for NUTC projects and other research projects at Missouri S&T.

Milestones

Relationship to other Research/Projects

 The equipment will be useful in a list of on-going and pending projects.

Functions/uses of the equipment

The individual functions/uses of each piece of equipment are defined in the descriptions above. As a whole, the combination of these equipment will allow the complete study of advanced cement-based materials, starting in the lab and ending with validation/implementation the field.

Starting at the microscale, the following pieces of equipment will be used for material characterization and optimization of mix designs: 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34. (Please refer to Appendix A for details corresponding to the number identifier for each piece of equipment)  This includes the testing of the physical characteristics of cement-based materials, asphalt binder, and concrete, as well as rheological characteristics, physio-chemical properties, hydration kinetics of these materials.

On a macro-scale, a number of key equipment will be required to produce high performance concrete materials (1, 4, 5, 14, and 25) and evaluate their characteristics under different loading and environmental conditions (4, 5, 8, 11, 14, 15, 19, 24, 25, 35, and 36).  These equipment include environmental chambers which enable the testing of transportation infrastructure materials, components and systems under real exposure conditions.  This equipment will allow CTIS researchers to address the need for in-situ data to drive rapid development of sustainable solutions to the marketplace

In the laboratory, the following pieces of equipment will be used to test the structural performance of these materials in order to determine their behaviors under service conditions and under extreme loading conditions: 9, 12, 16, 34, 35, and 37.

The final step in the overall study of these advanced materials, the following pieces of equipment will be implemented in field conditions to monitor their short-term and long-term response: 6, 9, 21, 23 and 34.  Structural health monitoring of these structures will also be carried out.

Benefit to CTIS research

The advanced infrastructure materials that will be investigated with the proposed set of equipment will allow the delivery of low cost, environmentally friendly, sustainable materials that can ensure safe and fast construction and rehabilitation of transportation infrastructure and increase the service life of such structures. Several of the pending and currently on-going projects will benefit from the purchase of the proposed set of equipment, as illustrated in Appendix A. In that Appendix, a total of 20 ongoing projects, totaling $2,419,127, will necessitate the acquisition of this equipment to successfully complete these projects and will directly benefit from the acquisition of the equipment. Further, 10 pending projects, totaling $1,255,000, will also require the proposal equipment to successfully complete them. The list of Pending and Current Projects is listed in Appendix B.

Research projects enabled by this equipment will advance the body of knowledge related to the US DOT strategic goals that are specific to the nation’s infrastructure as follows:

State of Good Repair

• Improve structural integrity, reliability, and sustainability of the transportation system.
• Develop performance-based specifications and quality management tools in infrastructure construction and rehabilitation.
• Advance scientific understanding and state-of-the-art of practice employed in corrosion prevention and maintenance.
• Improve fundamental understanding of bond so that innovative material systems can be designed to deliver more durable and sustainable solutions. 
• Improve structural health monitoring capabilities.

Economic Competitiveness

• Develop material science and fundamental understanding of sustainable construction materials.
• Validate short- and long-term performance of construction materials in field environments.
• Promote standardization and code approval of products and design protocols.

Environmental Sustainability

• Foster new technologies which promote sustainable infrastructure.