Facilites

Precision Chloride Profiles of Bridge Barriers After 8 Years of Service

Summary

600 m² state-of-the-art Materials Laboratories with approximately 20 researchers.
Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope / Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis
DTA/TGA/DSC Thermal Analysis
X-Ray Diffraction
Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry
High Pressure Pore Solution Extraction and Analysis Facilities
Isothermal Conduction Calorimeter
Stereo-Optical and Digital Microscopes for analysis of air void systems in concrete
Numerous strength test machines with capacities from 100 kN to 6000 kN
Specialized facilities for "mm" grinding and chloride analysis of concrete
Sensitive techniques for measurement of hydraulic permeability and chloride transport properties of concrete and porous materials
Laboratory equipment for most CSA and ASTM Standard testing of physical and chemical properties of cements, mortars, and concretes
Automated and manual freezers, ovens and environmental chambers to simulate the field or accelerate tests
Specialized computer software for corrosion modeling and life-cycle cost analysis
Instrumented Outdoor Field exposure site in Toronto

Analysing microstructure of concrete with scanning electron microscope.

Detailed Facilities Information

The Concrete Materials Laboratories are located on the third floor and in the basement of the Galbraith Building. These laboratories are equipped to do a wide range of tests on concrete materials and to provide training at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Specialized research equipment in the third floor laboratories includes numerous devices for characterization of the pore structure, permeability and ion diffusion of concrete.

There are ten water permeameters, including a high pressure triaxial cell, most of which are automated and data-logged using HP 3421 and CS 21X units and are computer interfaced. One cell is available for gas permeability testing.

Several types of chloride ion diffusion cells are in use as well as the AASHTO T277 Rapid Chloride device and there are various devices for measuring rate of surface absorption.

A computer-interfaced Quantachrome Autoscan 60 Mercury intrusion porosimeter and a Quantasorb BET device are used to measure pore size distributions.

Flame Photometry for Alkali Content of Concrete Pore Solutions

Other equipment includes:

A Netzsch Differential Thermal Analysis,Thermal Gravimetric Analysis, Differential Scanning Calorimetry Unit
Hitachi S2470N Scanning Electron Microscope with Oxford-Link Light Element Energy Dispersive X-Ray analyzer
Polishing and coating equipment for microscopis sample preparation
Panalytical X-Ray Powder Diffractometer
a Nikon Stereo microscope with X-Y stage
A CXI RapidAir 457 Automated Digital Air Void Analyser
a Beckman flame photometer
a TamAir Isothermal Conduction Calorimeter
Automated freeze/thaw cabinet for ASTM C666-A tests
5 Manual Freezers for De-Icer Scaling Tests
a LabConco glove box
8 drying ovens
CSZ programmable environmental chamber
2 vacuum ovens and pumps
2 refridgerators
Freeze Dryer
7 dataloggers
resonant frequency and ultrasonic pulse equipment
and numerous minor items of equipment.

The basement laboratories include:

an Eirich 0.20 m³ concrete mixer and 0.02 and 0.10 m³flat pan mixers
a Hi-Kema cylinder end-grinder,
a 25 m² moist curing room
ovens
concrete saws
coring equipment
Test devices for Self-Consolidating Concrete
38C walk in room for alkali-aggregate testing
50% relative humidity rooms for shrinkage testing
Restrained shrinkage, tensile creep, and G109 corrosion testing

There is also a roof-top concrete exposure site as well as a remote outdoor exposure site in Toronto.

In addition, other concrete materials characterization equipment can be accessed from other departments in the University. This includes:

X-ray diffraction equipment
3 scanning electron microscopes with energy dispersive X-ray analysis
an electron microprobe

and other instrumental techniques for chemical analysis.

Department of Civil Engineering » University of Toronto

Facilites

Facilites

Summary

Analysing microstructure of concrete with scanning electron microscope.

Detailed Facilities Information

Flame Photometry for Alkali Content of Concrete Pore Solutions