The materials laboratory in Civil Engineering at NDSU is used for teaching the basics of hot mix asphalt and Portland cement concrete, two major construction materials used in the civil engineering and construction industries. Recently, the lab was upgraded with advanced equipment for bituminous materials and mixture testing. Some of the laboratory equipment is also used for the soil mechanics (geotechnical) laboratory.

The newest addition to the materials lab is the new developed Superpave equipment for testing asphalt binders and for the design of hot mix asphalt. The Superpave equipment represents state-of-the-art equipment used in the asphalt industry. This equipment also has potential for graduate and undergraduate research at NDSU. New equipment was purchased with funds from the NDSU $20,000,000 Campaign, Department’s educational funds and research grants. Both the Portland cement concrete and asphalt industries are interested in improving our laboratory equipment and our library holdings in these areas. Industry representatives have visited our labs and are aware of our current needs. The list of the new equipment includes:

• Superpave Gyratory compactor for the design of hot asphalt, $20K
• Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) for testing asphalt binders, $35K
• Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) for testing asphalt binders, $25K
• Pressure Aging Vessel (PAV) for aging asphalt binders, $15K
• Rotary Thin Film Oven (RTFO) for aging asphalt binders, $9K
• High Speed Mixer and Shearing asphalt additives, $8K

The traditional equipment in the laboratory consists of:

• Marshall hammer for preparing hot mix asphalt samples
• Marshall breaking machine for testing hot mix asphalt samples
• Superpave gyratory compactor
• Sieves and screens for determining aggregate particle sizes
• Ovens for heating and drying aggregates
• Satec compression machine for testing concrete cylinders
• Other miscellaneous equipment for mixing concrete and casting concrete cylinders

Laboratory Activities

CE 303 – Civil Engineering Materials is taught to civil engineering, construction engineering and construction management students in the spring semester. The main emphases in this course are Portland cement concrete and hot mix asphalt. Mix design, placement and curing of these basic construction materials are emphasized. In addition, several laboratory exercises regarding the behavior of steel subjected to bending, tension and torsion are held in the mechanical engineering labs thus relieving the need for redundancy of equipment in the two departments.

CE 458/658 - Bituminous Materials and Mixtures is an elective course taught to civil engineering students in the fall semester. The course develops working knowledge of asphalt material properties, performance requirements, and related test characteristics. The course develops a basic understanding of traditional and state-of-the-art specifications and mix design procedures of asphalt materials and mixes Students gain knowledge on testing asphalt mixes and relating properties to performance. CE 658 is a graduate level course with added contents.

CE 457/657 – Pavement Management Systems is an elective course taught to civil engineering students in the fall semester. The course focuses on pavement rehabilitation and performance and uses the materials lab to link performance data to material properties. CE 657 is a graduate level course with added contents.