Hannah making concrete cylinders

Author: Hannah Allen | Major: Civil Engineering

My name is Hannah Allen, and I am in the University of Arkansas College of Engineering. I am specifically majoring in civil engineering, and Dr. Cameron Murray (Department of Civil Engineering) is my mentor. I have been working with him on researching the curing conditions of BCSA concrete for the majority of the 2021 school year (Spring and Fall). My future plans are to finish up my senior year of school, and then start my career in bridge engineering while furthering my education with a Master’s Degree in Structural Engineering. I have also passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, so in four years I plan to obtain my Professional Engineer’s License. After that I will explore the possibility of getting my Structural Engineer’s License.

BCSA concrete is important and applicable to the real world because of its quick setting capabilities. It can set up and reach a high strength in only 4-6 hours (as opposed to normal Portland cement concrete, which takes 28 days to reach about the same strength). This kind of rapid strength could be imperative for fixing issues without delaying or rerouting traffic for too long. Testing its curing conditions could allow us to figure out how to get the strongest version of BCSA concrete possible.

I chose this topic because of my interest in structures and structural engineering. Concrete can play a big part in structures (bridges, parking decks, buildings, etc.), and I believe it is important to understand the material that I will be designing and repairing in the future. For the first semester of research, I focused on varying curing conditions which included putting the cylinders in a water bath, lime bath, the environmental chamber, and out in the regular laboratory area and testing them at 3 hours, 1 day, 7 days, and 28 days. This past semester, I narrowed down my research to the strongest yielding concrete in its respective conditions and cured it for a longer amount of time (checking its strength at 7 days and 3 months).

There were a few obstacles during this semester of research. The first one was the new civil engineering research center constructed in the summer between my two semesters of research. A new laboratory area means all of the materials and machines were moved into new places. I spent time learning about the new lab’s layout and where all of the supplies were. Another setback was the concrete ingredients themselves. Fresh rock and sand were ordered for the new lab, but when the sand was delivered, we realized that it was too fine to make suitable concrete. I waited about two weeks until the correct sand was delivered to make my main batch of concrete. Because of these delays, my research will officially end in January of 2022 when I can gather the last data points and incorporate them into my thesis.

My next steps will be to wrap up writing my thesis and present my research either at the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Convention or in front of a committee consisting of University of Arkansas Civil Engineering faculty in March of 2022.