A Pilot Program to Teach Variability of Material Properties in the Freshman Material Laboratory

概率方法在结构和岩土工程领域得到了广泛的接受，并引起了对实践规范的全面修订。虽然这些方法在一些大学的研究生阶段被引入，但它们很少被纳入本科课程。因此，绝大多数土木工程师毕业时仍然没有接触到任何材料特性和载荷随机性的概念。本课题的最终目的是改善土木工程专业本科生材料性能变异性的教学。一是对本科土木工程材料实验课程进行修改。接下来，将公布结果。在传统的土木工程材料实验课程中，测试通常是在单个样品上完成的。说明材料特性的随机性需要大量的试验。为了提供这种能力，现有的400 kip Baldwin测试系统将进行升级。升级将提供测试框架的自动闭环控制和完整的数据采集。

Probabilistic methods are gaining wide acceptance in the structural and geotechnical engineering fields and are causing comprehensive revisions in codes of practice. While these methods are being introduced in some universities at the graduate level, they are rarely integrated into the undergraduate curriculum. As a result, the overwhelming majority of civil engineers still graduate without any exposure to the concepts of randomness of material properties and loads. The ultimate goal of this project is to improve the teaching of variability of material properties to civil engineering undergraduates. First, the undergraduate civil engineering materials laboratory course will be modified. Next, the results will be disseminated. In a conventional civil engineering material laboratory course, testing is typically done on a single specimen. Illustrating the random nature of material properties requires a large number of tests. To provide this capability, the existing 400-kip Baldwin testing system will be upgraded. The upgrade will provide automatic closed-loop control of the test frame and complete data acquisition.