Structural Materials Commons^™

Bio-Binder—Innovative Asphalt Technology, Amir Tabakovic

Articles

The global road network spans 16.3 million km [1], of which 5 million km is in the EU. These road networks fulfil major economic and social goals by facilitating the movement of goods and people throughout the EU, and are therefore of the utmost importance to the economic and social life of the EU [2]. National governments invest heavily in their road networks, e.g., in 2014, EUR 53.33 billion was invested in the development and maintenance of the EU road network [3]. Each year, the world produces 1.6 trillion tonnes of asphalt [4], of which 218 million tonnes is produced …

Engineering Properties And Microstructural Characteristics Of Cement And Geopolymer Based Mortars Using Nontraditional Supplementary Cementitious Materials, Mathialagan Sumesh

Student Works (2020-2029)

The concrete repair and rehabilitation industry grows rapidly due to deterioration, damage and defects in concrete structures. For various reasons, the concrete construction industry is not sustainable; because it consumes huge quantities of virgin materials, the usage of Portland cement as prime binder. The production of cement is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the high cost of commercial repair material. Therefore, it is necessary to develop cost-effective alternative repair materials for concrete repairs. There have been many standard repair materials available in the market, which are costly and not affordable to common people. However, research works …

Automatic Delamination Segmentation For Bridge Deck Based On Encoder-Decoder Deep Learning Through Uav-Based Thermography, Chongsheng Cheng, Zhexiong Shang, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Concrete deck delamination often demonstrates strong variations in size, shape, and temperature distribution under the influences of outdoor weather conditions. The strong variations create challenges for pure analytical solutions in infrared image segmentation of delaminated areas. The recently developed supervised deep learning approach demonstrated the potentials in achieving automatic segmentation of RGB images. However, its effectiveness in segmenting thermal images remains under-explored. The main challenge lies in the development of specific models and the generation of a large range of labeled infrared images for training. To address this challenge, a customized deep learning model based on encoder-decoder architecture is proposed …

Development Of Multi-Axial Fatigue Retrofits For Lock Gate Components, Logan Verkamp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lock gates are essential infrastructure components to the United State (US) supply chain. They create large cost savings and environmental benefits when compared with traditional methods of transport (freight and rail). Because of the large quantity of goods and dependence on these shipping chains, the US economy can be drastically affected by an unexpected gate closure. Unfortunately, many lock gates within the US have reached or exceeded their designed life. Due to the intensity of cyclic loads and the environment, fatigue cracks have become a prominent issue. Developed cracks near the pintle region (a joint which the gate rotates and …

Performance Evaluation Of Lightweight Normal And Geopolymer Foamed Concrete Using Palm Oil Fuel Ash As Partial Replacement Of Binder, M .E. Alnahhal Ahmed

Student Works (2020-2029)

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) have a detrimental effect on the environment and this had led many researchers to search for other alternatives in the form of sustainable cementitious materials. The depletion of natural resources and dumping the industrial by-products and waste materials are serious concern to our environment. This research focusses on the performance of using a palm oil industrial by-product, namely, palm oil fuel ash (POFA), as a partial replacement for OPC and fly ash (FA) in lightweight normal foamed concrete and lightweight geopolymer foamed concrete, respectively. Thus, using 10, 20, and 30% POFA …

Mandela Splash Pad Pre-Construction Plan, Levi Sandbulte

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In the construction industry, it is the responsibility of the general contractor to take the architect’s ideas and turn it into a real building. Many times this requires ample communication and several drafts. This efficient execution of this process is vital to the completion of a successful project. In this project, I practice this communication process. The challenge presented by the owner is to build an affordable splash pad, and without impacting the construction schedule of the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) that is being built on the same property at the same time. This proposal gives the owner a …

The Application Of Gray-Scale Level-Set Method In Segmentation Of Concrete Deck Delamination Using Infrared Images, Chongsheng Cheng, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Conventional nondestructive delamination detection of concrete pavements through thermography is often based on temperature contrasts between delaminated and sound areas. Non-uniform backgrounds caused by the environmental conditions are often challenging for contrast-based methods to robustly differentiate the delaminated areas from the sound areas. Instead of focusing on the temperature contrast, this study proposes a temperature gradient-based level set method (LSM) to detect boundaries for delamination segmentations. A modified edge indicator function is developed to represent the normalized temperature gradient of a thermal image. The experimental study was conducted to evaluate its applicability and stability for boundary detection in terms of …

Reduction Of Structural Damage From The Thermal Expansion Of Concrete Using Multifunctional Materials, Darren Hartl, Mirmilad Mirsayar

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18STTAM01. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This study leveraged past successes in the analysis and design of shape memory alloy (SMA) components to address the issue of thermal expansion in concrete structures. Since the SMA used in the current work is relatively cheaper than other common SMAs (less than $50/lb compared to NiTi which is $200/lb due to difficulties in processing), it is anticipated that the findings of the study could be implemented in real infrastructures made of concrete, asphalt concrete, and other complex large infrastructure. Low-cost Fe-SMAs …

Reduction Of Structural Damage From The Thermal Expansion Of Concrete Using Multifunctional Materials, Darren Hartl, Mirmilad Mirsayar

Publications

This study leveraged past successes in the analysis and design of shape memory alloy (SMA) components to address the issue of thermal expansion in concrete structures. Since the SMA used in the current work is relatively cheaper than other common SMAs (less than $50/lb compared to NiTi which is $200/lb due to difficulties in processing), it is anticipated that the findings of the study could be implemented in real infrastructures made of concrete, asphalt concrete, and other complex large infrastructure. Low-cost Fe-SMAs and other multifunctional materials can be considered as a replacement for components made of steel (e.g., in reinforced …

Soil-Recycled Aggregate-Geopolymer Road Base/Subbase Mixtures: Steps Towards Sustainability, Mohammad Khattak, Daniel Odion

Publications

This study deals with the development of Soil-Geopolymer mixtures using flyash, alkali activator and recycled aggregates (RAG) including recycled concrete (RCA) and reclaimed asphalt (RAP) as an alternative to soil-cement for pavement base and subbase layers. Several mix constituents were varied such as flyash type and content, RCA and RAP content and ratio of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide. Experiment design was established and mechanical and durability characteristics of Soil-RAG-Geopolymer mixtures were evaluated and then compared to the conventional soil-cement mixtures. The results of the testing showed that for the selected Soil-RAG-Geopolymer mixtures the strength, stiffness, permanent deformation, and durability …

Mitigating Reflective Cracking Through The Use Of A Ductile Concrete Interlayer, Qian Zhang, Mohammad Khattak, Adway Das

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18PLSU13. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"Reflective cracking is considered one of the most important issues that causes premature deterioration of composite pavements. Many types of mitigation methods have been studied in the past. However, they are either not effective in delaying the reflective cracking, or they only extend the service life by a few years. To address this critical issue and significantly extend the service life of the composite pavement, in this research, a ductile interlayer made of engineered cementitious composites (ECC) was proposed. It was hypothesized …

Development Of Geopolymer-Based Cement And Soil Stabilizers For Transportation Infrastructure, Miladin Radovic, Anand Puppala

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18CTAM03. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"Geopolymer Cement (GPC) has drawn much attention in the recent years as an alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) for soil stabilization, pavements, bridges and other transportation structures due to their good mechanical properties in comparison to OPC. In addition, GPC can be processed at room temperatures from aqueous solutions of waste materials (e.g. fly ash) or abundant natural sources (e.g. clay), thereby significantly reducing CO2 production associated with processing of OPC. As such, GPC proves to be a more sustainable and …

Development Of Geopolymer-Based Cement And Soil Stabilizers For Transportation Infrastructure, Miladin Radovic, Anand Puppala

Publications

Geopolymer Cement (GPC) has drawn much attention in the recent years as an alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) for soil stabilization, pavements, bridges and other transportation structures due to their good mechanical properties in comparison to OPC. In addition, GPC can be processed at room temperatures from aqueous solutions of waste materials (e.g. fly ash) or abundant natural sources (e.g. clay), thereby significantly reducing CO2 production associated with processing of OPC. As such, GPC proves to be a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative than OPC. This research explores methods to develop GPC with desired properties and evaluate their …

Self-Healing Concrete Using Encapsulated Bacterial Spores In A Simulated Hot Subtropical Climate, Marwa Hassan, Jose Milla, Tyson Rupnow, Ahsennur Soysal

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18CLSU02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"Bacterial concrete has become one of the most promising self-healing alternatives due to its capability to seal crack widths through microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP). In this study, two bacterial strains were embedded at varying dosages (by weight of cement) in concrete. Beam specimens were used to identify the maximum crack-sealing efficiency, while cylinder samples were used to determine their effects on the intrinsic mechanical properties, as well as its stiffness recovery over time after inducing damage. The concrete specimens were cured …

Use Of Bagasse Ash As A Concrete Additive For Road Pavement Application, Gabriel Arce, Marwa Hassan, Maria Gutierrez-Wing, Michele Barbato

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18CLSU03. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) as a partial replacement of cement in concrete for road pavement application. The study explored the pozzolanic activity of SCBA produced from three different processing methodologies (i.e., raw SCBA, controlled SCBA and post-processed SCBA). The experimental results revealed that SCBA produced by the controlled burning of sugarcane bagasse fiber (SBF) at 650°C and grinding (C-650), presented the maximum pozzolanic activity. However, this SCBA production process was deemed …

Uhpc Shear Keys In Concrete Bridge Superstructures, Craig Newtson, Brad Weldon, Elsy Flores, Jordan Varbel, William Toledo

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18CNMS01. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This research investigated the use of locally produced ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) as a grouting material to repair deteriorated shear keys. Shear keys are used in adjacent girder superstructures to produce monolithic behavior and load transfer across the structure. Shear key durability is a concern since shear key degradation can jeopardize the integrity of the structure. Transportation agencies have reported that 75% of distress in adjacent girder bridges is due to cracking and de-bonding along shear keys. Previous research has shown that …

Disaster Resilient And Self-Assessing Multifunctional Transportation Structures, Ibrahim Karaman, Darren Hartl

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18STTAM02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This research designs and characterizes multifunctional materials, in particular inexpensive shape memory alloys, for transportation structures that possess excellent mechanical properties and self-sensing capabilities for strengthening and health monitoring. The properties are the Fe-SMAs are sensitive to part size in that the grain size of the material, which can be grown to several inches, should exceed the smallest dimension of the part. In the current work, maximum part size of the large dimension Fe-SMA rods were determined through detailed microstructural investigations. Samples …

Bridge Deck Delamination Segmentation Based On Aerial Thermography Through Regularized Grayscale Morphological Reconstruction And Gradient Statistics, Chongsheng Cheng, Zhexiong Shang, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Environmental and surface texture-induced temperature variation across the bridge deck is a major source of errors in delamination detection through thermography. This type of external noise poises a significant challenge for conventional quantitative methods such as global thresholding and k-means clustering. An iterative top-down approach is proposed for delamination segmentation based on grayscale morphological reconstruction. A weight-decay function was used to regularize the reconstruction for regional maxima extraction. The mean and coefficient of variation of temperature gradient estimated from delamination boundaries were used for discrimination. The proposed approach was tested on a lab experiment and an in-service bridge deck. The …

Application Of Computational Tools To Spaghetti-Based Truss Bridge Design, Jin Xu, Jiliang Li, Nuri Zeytinoglu, Jinyuan Zhai

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

Application of Computational Tools to Spaghetti-Based Truss Design

Statics and Strength of Materials are two foundational courses for Mechanical/Civil Engineering. In order to assist students in better understanding and applying concepts to a meaningful design task, SolidWorks and theoretical calculation were used for a spaghetti-bridge design contest with the constraints of given maximum weight and allowable support-material weight. As the first step of this iterative designing process, both extrude feature and structural member were introduced to model planar bridge trusses. Then SolidWorks’ Statics module was used to run FEA analysis of the structural performance in efforts to optimize the …

Latex Modified Concrete - Very Early Strength, Bobby Steele

Purdue Road School

INDOT came out with specifications for a very early strength concrete to use on bridge deck overlays. This concrete is fast setting, which allows overlays to be performed over a weekend and benefits the traveling public with a short duration of traffic interference. Cure time to reach the strength requirement is 3 hours. E&B Paving performed the first application with the new spec on August 26, 2018. Many changes were also made to the INDOT Specification Section 722.

Thermographic Laplacian-Pyramid Filtering To Enhance Delamination Detection In Concrete Structure, Chongsheng Cheng, Ri Na, Zhigang Shen

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Despite decades of efforts using thermography to detect delamination in concrete decks, challenges still exist in removing environmental noise from thermal images. The performance of conventional temperature-contrast approaches can be significantly limited by environment-induced non-uniform temperature distribution across imaging spaces. Time-series based methodologies were found robust to spatial temperature non-uniformity but requires extended period to collect data. A new empirical image filtering method is introduced in this paper to enhance the delamination detection using blob detection method that originated from computer vison. The proposed method employs a Laplacian of Gaussian filter to achieve multi-scale detection of abnormal thermal patterns by …

Compact Facility For Testing Steady And Transient Thermal Performance Of Building Walls, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Anthony Robinson

Articles

Energy efficiency retrofit of buildings represents a key effort in reducing EU energy demand by 20% by 2020. However, predictions tend to overestimate savings by large percentages. The shortfall in savings can be attributed to incorrect predictive techniques, comfort takeback along with other behavioural and workmanship variables. Common predictive techniques related to heat loss tend to be based on the U-value of the building envelope. This paper presents the design of a more straightforward and compact version of the traditional Hot-Box apparatus (measures U-value) which instead determines the thermal resistance of samples of building envelope. U-value includes the need to …

Corrosion Of Steel In Concrete And Its Prevention In Aggressive Chloride-Bearing Environments, Luca Bertolini, Maddalena Carsana, Matteo Gastaldi, Federica Lollini, Elena Redaelli

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

This keynote paper deals with the durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures exposed to aggressive environments characterized by high concentration of chloride ions, namely, marine environments or the use of de-icing salts. The mechanism of chloride-induced corrosion of steel in concrete is introduced, and its influence on the service life of RC structures is analyzed. Factors affecting the time to corrosion initiation are described with regard to both concrete properties and environmental exposure conditions. Design approaches available for achieving durability targets associated with the design service life are analyzed, focusing on studies carried out by the authors in recent years …

Daylighting And Thermo-Electrical Performance Of An Autonomous Suspended Particle Device Evacuated Glazing, Aritra Ghosh

Doctoral

Suspended particle device (SPD) glazing is an AC powered switchable glazing. PV powered SPD evacuated (vacuum) glazing was proposed with the potential of reducing the heating demand, cooling demand and artificial lighting demand of a building. To achieve an autonomous SPD vacuum glazing, semi empirical simulation and outdoor characterisation was explored in this thesis. Transmission of SPD glazing (area 0.058 m2) varied from 5% when opaque to 55% when transparent in the presence of 110 V, 0.07 W AC supply was characterised in outdoor test cell in Dublin. The SPD glazing has variable spectral transmission in the presence of variable …

State-Of-The-Art Review Of Cathodic Protection For Reinforced Concrete Structures, Aimee Byrne, Niall Holmes, Brian Norton

Articles

Cathodic protection (CP) limits the corrosion of a metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell. This can be achieved either by using a more active sacrificial anode to create a driving current, or by using inert anodes and impressing a current onto the cathode surface using an external direct current (DC) source. Impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) is preferred where widespread protection is required, particularly in reinforced concrete structures. ICCP needs a constant DC power supply that is usually provided through a grid connection or independent generators. This paper presents the currently available CP systems for …

Case Studies Of Cavity And External Wall Insulation Retrofitted Under The Irish Home Energy Saving Scheme: Technical Analysis And Occupant Perspectives, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Garrett O'Donnell, Anthony Robinson

Articles

The residential sector represents 27% of primary energy consumption in Ireland. This paper examines the case study of the Irish government’s national grant scheme to encourage energy efficiency retrofit in private housing. That is the Home Energy Saving (HES) Scheme, later rebranded the Better Energy: Homes (BEH) Scheme. The methodology involved monitoring several homes immediately before and after retrofit alongside discussions with occupants. The examination focused on specific measures commonly introduced through the HES/BEH programme − cavity and external wall insulation. It has been found that a significant decrease in heat loss through the walls was measured in all cases. …

Preliminary Investigation Into The Rate Of Carbonation Of Concrete Blocks Under Normal Production Yard Conditions, Aimee Byrne, Eanna Nolan

Conference papers

The release of CO2 from calcination during the manufacture of cement can be partially or fully offset by the CO2 it naturally absorbs during its lifetime. This paper reports results from a preliminary investigation into the rate of carbonation in concrete blocks stacked in a production yard over a period of 6 months. The blocks were stacked in a normal manner under natural exposure conditions. Carbonation progress was determined by splitting the blocks and spraying the freshly exposed surface with a phenolphthalein solution at intervals over the test period. It was found that the rate of the carbonation front progression …

Influence Of Warping On Stress For Restrained Concrete Slabs: For Application To Crcp, Corey M. Beck, W. Jason Weiss, Nathan T. Todd

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Continuously-reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) is widely used in transportation system because of its low maintenance requirement. However, the need for large volumes of steel creates a high cost for new construction. The Illinois Tollway is preparing to substantially renovate highways in and around Chicago and this work seeks to understand how concretes of varying mixture designs can be made thinner by reducing the amount of built-in stress. The experiment examines warping in beams subjected to various degrees of restraint, in an effort to assess effectiveness at reducing warping in continuously reinforced concrete pavements. Value added methodologies such as internal curing …

Early-Age Hydration Studies Of Portland Cement, Fengjuan Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our current knowledge on cement hydration during setting is based on the discrete observation of hydrated paste. An advanced micro/nano-level technique which can perform the in-situ observation on the continuous hydration of cement paste is demanded. In this study, Raman spectroscopy (RS) was chosen as such a method to continuously investigate wet pastes. The objective of this research is to explore the hydration process and microstructural development of fresh pastes with this technique. This research was conducted in three phases. First, the RS analysis was used to continuously observe the cement hydration from 20 minutes after mixing to 9 hours. …

The Effect Of Clay, Cement And Fibers On The Strength And Durability Of Compressed Earth Blocks, Wyatt Adair Banker-Hix

Master's Theses

This Thesis examines the effect of soil characteristics, cement content and fibers on the strength and durability of compressed earth blocks (CEBs). This work expands on the available information regarding the constituent properties which affect the compressive and tensile strengths and durability of CEBs. Additionally, little research on the subject of synthetic fibers and their effect on strength and durability of CEBs is available and this work provides an initial study in this area.

To study the effects of fibers, as well as confirm the trends of previous research regarding the effects of clay and cement, 27 unique batches of …