Materials Testing Research Lab

The Materials Testing Research Laboratory within SIUC’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering houses several sophisticated equipment to evaluate the performance of the materials commonly used in construction, for structural as well as non-structural applications. While one can use several of the Instron Testing Machines available to evaluate the performance of the material in tension, compression, or bending; facilities to evaluate these materials using non-destructive techniques are also available. Also, the laboratory houses state-of-the-art facilities to perform durability studies on construction materials. In order to acquire data and perform data analysis using statistical tools the laboratory is equipped with sophisticated computers, software, high-speed internet connection, and data acquisition systems. Examples of work include performance evaluation of fiber-reinforced composites, permeability of concrete, corrosion of reinforcement in concrete, development of high-performance composite materials and sandwich panels, and instrumentation of structures to predict service life.