MRI: Acquisition of a Structural Testing System for Interdisciplinary Research and Teaching

这一重大研究仪器奖支持采购大型结构测试系统，该系统是测试全尺寸样本并验证各种民用基础设施修复技术的性能和效率所必需的。评估和修复美国老化的基础设施是一个严重的问题，每年要花费国家数十亿美元。因此，研究经济、易用、适时、耐久性好的修复技术是非常重要的。在实施这些康复技术和材料之前，需要进行实验测试来验证和验证这些技术和材料的质量。该项目的总体研究愿景是为美国和世界各地的民用基础设施的更新和修复开发创新、成本效益和可持续的解决方案。这项研究的结果将有益于包括建筑物、桥梁和人行道在内的高等级和低等级结构，并将有助于维护公共安全和对国家-S基础设施的信心。此外，它还将通过本科生和研究生水平的教学和研究相结合，在学习方面取得显著进步，从而加强对工科学生的教育。在调查和评估新的或修复的结构的结构设计的成败时，耐久性是一个关键问题。正在提议使用先进和可持续的材料作为替代解决方案，以确保这些结构的耐久性。研究小组将通过在不同载荷组合下对各种大型试件进行结构测试，并结合材料的微观结构分析来评估这些新型修复材料的性能。这将使研究小组能够在实际使用条件下对上述材料进行评估，并有助于了解其失效机理。其他将研究的课题包括：“智能”修复混凝土和钢结构的开发、用于新建筑和结构修复的创新和可持续材料的性能、可持续路面基础设施的开发、土壤随时间变化的特性调查以及工程木制品的性能。

This Major Research Instrumentation award supports the procurement of a large-scale structural testing system that is necessary to test full-scale specimens and verify the performance as well as the efficiency of various rehabilitation techniques for civil infrastructure. The evaluation and rehabilitation of America's aging infrastructure is a serious issue that is costing the country billions of dollars per year. For this reason, research investigating economical rehabilitation techniques that can be applied easily, employed in a timely manner and that offer superior durability is of the utmost importance. Experimental testing is required to verify and validate the quality of these rehabilitation techniques and materials before they are implemented. The overall research vision for this project is the development of innovative, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for the renewal and rehabilitation of civil infrastructure in America and around the world. Results of this research will benefit above and below grade structures including buildings, bridges and pavements and will help in maintaining public safety and confidence in the nation?s infrastructure. In addition, it will also serve to enhance the education of engineering students by providing significant advancement in learning through the integration of teaching and research at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Durability is a key issue when it comes to investigating and evaluating the success or failure of the structural design of a new or rehabilitated structure. The use of advanced and sustainable materials is being proposed as alternative solutions to ensure the durability of these structures. The performance of these new and restorative materials will be evaluated by the research team through structural testing of a wide-variety of large-scale specimens under different loading combinations in conjunction with microstructural analysis of the materials. This will allow the research team to evaluate the aforementioned materials under real service conditions and aid in understanding their failure mechanisms. Additional topics that will be researched include: development of "smart" rehabilitated concrete and steel structures, performance of innovative and sustainable materials for use in new construction and structural rehabilitation, development of sustainable pavements infrastructure, investigation of time-dependent properties of soils and performance of engineered wood products.