GRANTS AND APPLIED RESEARCH IN CONSTRUCTION

INTRODUCTION

The following categories include the grant and applied research efforts of faculty at the University of Northern Iowa.

$185,000 WORTH OF EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES FROM F. W. DODGE DIVISION OF MCGRAW-HILL INC.

F. W. Dodge, a division of McGraw-Hill Information Services Company of New York, provided the construction program with 20 Dodge/SCAN project viewers on which filmed copies of the complete plans and specifications of current construction projects from across the country can be viewed; and Dodge Data Line, a nationwide on-line construction bidding information service.

The Dodge/Scan project viewers allow for an alternate medium to view construction documents which are used in the majority of the courses in our construction management curriculum. The units and films are used most extensively in two courses Construction Graphics and Construction Documents where students are interpreting and synthesizing components of construction documents. This eliminates students spending a great deal of time developing actual drafting skills.

Through the Dodge DataLine Information System students are provided with reports on engineering/ heavy construction projects, general building projects, residential construction and information on trade, equipment and material. They can search this nationwide database for pertinent bidding information on 250,000 new construction projects by any one or a combination of 17 different search criteria, such as geographic location, value, project type and development stage.

This allows students to gain computer competencies, realize the variety of construction projects per geographic areas and develop an appreciation of the size of the construction industry.

In addition, Dodge has furnished UNI with the General Building section of the Sweet's Catalog Files, and subscripts to key industry publications including Architectural Record, EC&M, Electrical Wholesaling, ENR and International Construction Week.

Additionally, the Electronic Sweet's Data Base is utilized by students to write specifications on materials relevant to a project's need and display uniform product profiles.

COMPUTER INTEGRATED CONSTRUCTION (CIC)

The competitive nature of the construction industry is known to all who are involved in construction. To be competitive, construction firms are expecting graduates to be competent in estimating, project management, and accounting. Production of accurate and timely estimates as well as job cost accounting are essential components of every construction company.

Timberline Corporation, the sole leader in the area of computer integrated construction, is assisting the construction program at the University of Northern Iowa with a donation of $25,000 worth of software and hardware. Programs to include Job Cost, Precision Estimating, Microsoft Project and Primavera Integrators are available to students at ten stations.

In order to reduce redundancies and improve productivity, Timberline has developed a series of integrators which make it possible to integrate AutoCad, Microsoft, and Primavera with their estimating software. Accounting software compliments the estimating program and enables an accounting department the means of accurately tracking job costs.

The Microsoft Project and Primavera integrators assist the construction managers and superintendents in tracking and monitoring the progress of the project. With CIC, Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) can be linked to Computerized Construction Estimating, making it possible to estimate the entire project using the drawing produced by CAD thus making estimating, accounting and project management accurate, cost effective, and extremely fast.

MICROSOFT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Microsoft Corporation, a leading software developer has donated its project management software to the construction management program here at the University of Northern Iowa. This software is being utilized in introductory courses such as Construction Resources and Commercial Construction. The program's full potential is utilized in a senior level course called construction planning, scheduling, and controlling.

The cost and time to complete a project are essential components of competitiveness in any industry. More and more of today's construction firms are discovering the necessity and advantages of automated project scheduling, and controlling. Accounting departments in construction firms are no longer capable of producing an accurate cash flow, and present and future expenditures of the projects, due to the enormous and diverse nature of today's construction projects.

$131,000 GRANT - PLASTIC/SHREDDED TIRE RECYCLING INTO PERMANENT

CONCRETE AND ASPHALT STRUCTURES.

Review of $131,000 grant from the state of Iowa to the University of Northern Iowa dealing with the recycling of non-biodegradable materials, specifically polyethylene and rubber tires into construction materials.

Projects such as this have been in the forefront of funded research due to pressing environmental concerns due primarily to the lack of sanitary land­fill sites. The emphasis of this research project is to examine the feasibility of recycling this traditionally rejected refuse into viable and usable construction materials.

Currently the researchers at the University of Northern Iowa are examining mechanical and physical properties of Asphalt Cement and Portland Cement (AC & PC). Concrete for such factors as fiber volume fraction, fiber length, mechanical or chemical bonding, tensile, flexural, compressive strength, toughness, impact resistance, thermal and sound proofing properties.

A final step of this grant is to complete an economic feasibility plan based on the research team's findings for incorporation of this former waste refuse into appropriate building materials for the state of Iowa.

THE EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYPROPYLENE FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE.

The effects of the chemical surface treatment of polypropylene fibers on the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced concrete was investigated. A Type I 3,500 Psi laboratory concrete design mix was utilized as the control group-base composite. The solutions used to chemically treat the polypropylene fiber (PPF) surfaces were a basic solution and a mild organic acid. Plan PPF as well as chemically treated PPF were utilized in the preparation of fiber reinforced concrete samples.

The concrete samples were tested mechanically in compression, flexure and tension following ASTM Part 4.02 test procedures. The failed fiber surfaces were prepared and analyzed using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The interfacial bonds between the fiber surfaces and the dehydration crystalline products were evaluated.

A correlation between the micro-structural analysis, chemical surface treatment of the PPF and the mechanical properties of the concrete composite was reported.

CONCRETE REINFORCEMENT USING RECYCLED POLYETHYLENE FILAMENTS

Recycled polyethylene plastic filaments were prepared from commonly used plastic products, e.g. soft drink bottles and containers. The filaments were then mixed with concrete of type 1 design mix. The reinforced concrete specimens were then tested to evaluate the effects of such parameters as the filament size and the filament volume fraction on the mechanical properties of the reinforced concrete. Preliminary data indicate that the mechanical bonding between the polyethylene filaments and the cementitious matrix of the concrete is weak and hence the reinforced concrete experiences a filament pull-out phenomenon under loading. Attempts to improve the mechanical bonding between the filament surface and cementitious matrix is underway. Such attempts include mechanical roughing and chemical treatment of the filament surface prior to mixing. SEM techniques will be utilized to study the microstructural features of the dehydration products as well as the interface characteristics between the filaments and the matrix.

SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM)

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination of materials is a very powerful tool in studying and analyzing micro-structural variations in materials. SEM utilizes a beam of electrons, generated under vacuum, to bombard a freshly fractured and prepared surface of the material under investigation. It is due to the selective reflection of these electrons and other electromagnetic radiation generated due to the impact of the election beam that micro-structural features are revealed. The basic phenomena that SEM is used to study are such phenomena as bonding characteristics of the different components of a composite material, micro-structural feature and morphology of surfaces, surface defects in non-destructive analysis techniques and fracture mechanics and related areas.

Some of such studies that utilized SEM techniques in our lab are listed below: Different fibers were used to reinforce concrete composites in different volume fractions and using different chemical treatments on fiber surfaces and as admixtures. Such fibers were steel fibers, polypropylene plastic fiber mesh, the abaca organic fiber and filaments as well as chips and aggregates of recycled polyethylene plastics. The major thrust of the SEM studies was to examine such phenomena as the bonding characteristics of the fibers to the cementitious matrix; crack initiation, propagation and arrest phenomenon and the morphology of the hydration products and its growth on the fiber surface. Such analysis yielded very important and interesting information about the role of fibers in the property variations of fiber-reinforced concretes.

THE EFFECTS OF POLYPROPYLENE/STEEL FIBER HYBRID REINFORCEMENT ON CONCRETE COMPOSITES

The effects of polypropylene/steel fiber hybrid on the mechanical properties of reinforced concrete was investigated. A type I 3,000 P.S.I. laboratory design mix was utilized. Four separate groups containing plain concrete, polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete, steel fiber reinforced concrete, and hybrid of polypropylene and steel fiber reinforced concrete were produced and examined. The fiber volume fraction used was set at constant value for all groups.

The concrete specimens were tested mechanically in compression, splitting tensile, and flexural according to ASTM standards and procedures. The failed fiber surfaces were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The interfacial bonding between the fiber surfaces and the dehydrated crystalline products were evaluated.

Correlations between the microstructures and the specimen's mechanical properties were observed and reported.

CONCLUSION

The faculty at the University of Northern Iowa have demonstrated that there is a great deal of grant and applied research opportunities pertaining to the construction field. These grants and research projects can be obtained through private or public entities.

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