Construction Materials Laboratory

Overview/Purpose
The Construction Materials Laboratory was established to train students to carry out tests on common construction materials such as concrete, steel, wood, and masonry. The tests are conducted to determine the engineering properties in terms of strength, strain, fatigue, creep, elasticity, stiffness durability, and workability. This lab is also used for the designing, proportioning, mixing, casting, curing, and tooling of concrete batches, as well as, the erection of industrial formwork for concrete. All equipment is calibrated according to ASTM Standards and all tests are performed based on ASTM, ACI, and AASHTO testing specifications.

Types of Testing:

• Aggregate Testing
  • Sieve Analysis
  • Dry-Rodded Unit Weight Determination
  • Specific Gravity Pycnometers, Conical Molds and Tampers
• Concrete Testing
  • Batching and mixing of concrete mix designs
  • Casting and molding of concrete cylinders and beams
  • Curing of concrete specimens
  • Capping of concrete cylinders for compression testing
  • Compression testing of concrete cylinders
  • Tensile testing of concrete cylinders using the "Split-Tensile Method"
  • Flexural beam testing of concrete beams
• Composite Materials Testing (under development)
• Masonry Testing
  • Batching, Casting, and Curing of masonry mixes into cubes
  • Compression testing of masonry cubes
• Metals of Construction Testing
  • Steel tensile testing
  • Aluminum tensile testing
  • Steel reinforcing bar tensile testing
• Wood Testing
  • Wood shear testing
  • Wood tensile testing
  • Wood compression testing parallel with the grain
  • Wood compression testing perpendicular with the grain
  • Wood flexural beam testing

• CEMT 120 Building Systems and Materials
• CEMT 260 Strength of Materials
• CEMT 267 Materials Testing
• CEMT 430 Soils and Foundations
• CEMT 499 Concrete Formwork
• ACI Concrete Field Technician Certification Program
• High School Lab Experience Sessions (Session #10)

• Forney LT-1000 Combination Load Testing Machine - 600,000 lb. Capacity
  • Digital display with RS-232 serial output
  • Houston 2000 X-Y Graph Plotter
  • 8 inch Extensometer
• Forney LT-0031-D2 Combination Load Testing Machine - 150,000 lb. Capacity
  • Digital display with RS-232 serial output
  • Houston 2000 X-Y Graph Plotter
  • 2 inch Extensometer
• Forney FT-0040 Concrete Compression Testing Machine - 250,000 lb. Capacity
  • Fixture for Flexural Bending Tests
  • Fixture for Split-Tensile Testing
• 350 gallon Curing Bath with Temperature Controlled Heater
• Slump Cone Test Sets with Rods, Scoops, Base Plates and Funnels
• Forney Concrete Air Pressure Meter Type B
• Forney Concrete Roll-a-Meter Air Indicator
• Vicat Consistency Testing Apparatus
• Cement Compression Strength and Air Content Flow Table
• Concrete cylinder capping fixture with melting pot and sulfur capping compound
• Concrete mixer, molds, formwork, tooling, and accessories
• Ohaus B100P Bench Scales Electronic Balance
• Ohaus Voyager 22 Kg Capacity Electronic Balances
• Specific Gravity Pycnometers, Conical Molds and Tampers
• Unit Weight Containers with Compaction Rods
• 12" Sieves ranging from 1-" to #16 sieve sizes
• Humboldt 12" or 8" Sieve Shaker Machine
• Gilson TS-2 Aggregate Shaker Machine with Screens, Pans, and Clean-N-Weigh