Source: ACI Foundation, Farmington Hills, Mich.
ACI Foundation’s Concrete Research Council has committed $10,000 each to these projects: “Mitigation of Steel Reinforcement Corrosion via Bioactive Agents,” “Low Activation Concrete with Low Activation Reinforcing Bars,” and, “National BIM Standard for Cast in Place Concrete (Phase Two).”
“Mitigation of Steel Reinforcement” investigators Dr. Aaron Sakulich, Worchester Polytechnic Institute, and Dr. Jessica Schiffman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will examine the use of renewable, bioactive agents that have been encapsulated within low-cost, lightweight aggregates. Scheduled for March 2014 completion, the work is supported by ACI Committee 213 on Lightweight Aggregate and Concrete.
In “Low Activation,” University of Utah’s Dr. Tatjana Jevremovic will test concrete mixtures, suited to nuclear power plant structure, that do not reach the activation levels for radioactive waste. The research stems from the large volume of rebar requiring disposal as low-level radioactive waste after a service life in plant, spent fuel storages or related waste disposal sites. With a July 2014 scheduled completion, the project is supported by ACI Committee 349 on Concrete Nuclear Structures.
In “National BIM Standard,” Georgia Institute of Technology’s Dr. Charles Eastman will target a second phase of research to translate exchange requirements into IFC-based code and provide instructions for translator implementation by software companies. ACI Committee 131 on Building Information Modeling of Concrete Structures is supporting the project, with expected completion in June 2014.