Civil Engineering Materials Laboratory

The Civil Engineering Materials and Structures Laboratory was developed to link material properties, both short and long-term, to the behavior of civil engineering structures.  The equipment used to create and identify material properties includes: a Forney FX600 compression testing machine fitted with digital load monitor, a 60 kip Tinius Olsen Universal Testing machine with exstensometer, a concrete compressometer, two three cubic foot concrete mixers, one six cubic foot concrete mixer, a cement mortar mixer, cement mortar molds, Vicat apparatuses, Gillmore apparatuses, portable bench beam scales, concrete vibrator, slump test sets, unit weight test sets, air content test sets, curing tanks, convections ovens, microwave ovens, a rebar cutter/ bender, and a digital scanning calorimeter. Degradation testing to determine long-term properties is done using a freeze-thaw chamber, a UV weather tester, a constant temperature water bath, and plastic tubs used to expose materials to water with different pH levels. Structural testing is performed using  a 400 kip capacity load frame. The load frame is equipped with a 400 kip load cell, and a 1 kip load cell can be attached for smaller loads. Strain and deformations are monitored using string potentiometers and both vibrating wire and resistance strain gauges. All data is collected using a National Instruments CompactDAQ and LabView.