Research Facilities | John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Recycled Plastics for Highway Appurtenances

This research and development center, supported by a grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), answers a call for more economical traffic noise barriers and safer road barriers that use new materials and designs. In addition to material tests, the work will include development of constitutive models and analysis techniques for nonlinear characteristics of the material and its variation through the cross section. Computer simulation will be used to analyze the barriers during a crash by modifying current programs to include recycled plastics models. Experimental study will include wind and acoustic test of the noise barriers and in-field implementation of the proposed designs. An important aspect of this study will be to develop structural analysis methods and design procedures suitable for this new material. Such procedures and methodologies must take advantage of the flexible but ductile nature of the material. Recycled plastics will also be investigated for use in the new aesthetically-innovative noise wall design known as Bhavnani Design and as posts in a Combination Glare Screen/Pedestrian Barrier for New Jersey center barriers.

Concrete Testing Laboratory

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the High Performance Concrete Laboratory in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department is the only academic facility capable of testing very high strength concretes under uniaxial as well as triaxial states of stress. The primary testing system at this facility is capable of applying up to one million pounds of axial load on specimens under computer controlled closed-loop environment. The system can be programmed to perform triaxial tests with confining pressures of up to 20,000 psi. Concrete specimens can be tested in special environmental chambers under simultaneous cyclic load, and thermal stress conditions. The system can be programmed to apply thermal cycles with amplitudes varying between -50oC to +200oC.

The facility is also equipped with two other closed-loop testing systems for testing of large size beams, and normal strength concretes. The materials processing component of the facility includes two computer controlled micro-sizers, and fractionators for particle size analysis and categorization of industrial by-product additives to concrete, i.e. fly-ash, microsilica, and blast furnace slags. There are two new curing rooms for developing controlled conditions and studying the effects of various combinations of thermal and moisture conditions during early stages of strength development in high performance concretes.

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Smart Construction and Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (SCIIS) Laboratory

The SCIIS lab is furnished with state-of-the-art facilities (i.e., equipment, machines, and tools) that are tailored towards service industries such as: civil engineering, infrastructure, construction, transportation, architecture, urban environments, among others. The performed research in the SCIIS lab advances the development and application of smart and intelligent technologies to inventory, manage, and monitor the built environment and its resources through research, teaching, and outreach. The lab is dedicated to the development of automation solutions, modeling methods, smart algorithms, and computational tools that can be implemented in practice to infrastructure facilities and construction projects with the aim of providing safe, sustainable, resilient, and productive systems and environment. The lab contributes to the enabling technology available for designing, testing, operating, and managing high-performance and complex infrastructure systems. The lab supports academic programs and project sponsors with ongoing research and professional services that advance understanding and knowledge of construction and project performance through improved system monitoring and management by means of research and development, technology implementation, training, and education. The research and development activities in the SCIIS lab are directed towards having a bridge between the construction and infrastructure community, the information technology (IT) community, and other fields.

The SCIIS lab focuses on sustainability, resiliency, and environmental impacts of infrastructure systems; infrastructure asset management of above and underground structures (bridges, dams, transportation, utilities, tunnels, energy, water); computational methods and applied machine learning; and modeling, simulation, and optimization of infrastructure assets, construction operations, and inter-and intra-community interactions. The research activities at the SCIIS lab include the following clusters:

Sustainable, Resilient, and Intelligent Infrastructure Systems: Disaster Management and Recovery, Assessment of Deterioration Conditions of Infrastructure Assets, Inspection-Free and Data-Driven Maintenance Decisions, Technology-Driven Rehabilitation and Repair, Smart Cities and Transportation.
Data Science and Computational Analytics: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Soft Computing, Data Mining, Deep Learning.
Next-Generation Technologies: Emerging Materials, Automation, Robotics, Sensing Technologies, Virtualization, Internet of Things (IoTs), Green Technologies, Offsite Manufacturing.
Optimization, Modeling, and Simulation: Agent-Based Modeling, Mathematical and Statistical Models, Deterministic and Stochastic Optimization, System Dynamics, Monte-Carlo, Discrete-Event Simulation.
Multi-Agent Systems: Interacting Intelligent Agents, Resilient and Sustainable Communities, Game theory, Systems-of-Systems, Self-Organized Systems.
Innovative Project Management Methods: Accelerated Project Delivery Solutions, Project Performance and Control, Risk Management.
Workforce- and Workplace-Related Aspects: Productivity, Health and Safety, Skillset, Training Practices, Business Operations, Financial Performance.
Contracting: Bid Decision-Making, Project Procurement Methods, Sub-Contracting, Contractual Guidelines, Commercial and Legal Considerations, Dispute Mitigation and Resolution.

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Smart Sensors and Nondestructive Testing Laboratory

This laboratory has been developed in order to provide means for researching and developing self-sensing systems to build into structures that would monitor excessive strains, deflections, load distributions, temperature variations, and corrosion. The Smart Sensors and NDT Laboratory is unique in that the researchers involved consist of an interdisciplinary forum of scientists and engineers with civil, electrical, chemical, and physics backgrounds. The laboratory is primarily involved in developing fiber optic sensor systems for embedment within concrete, and other emerging composites. The facility is equipped with a number of laser systems, optical spectrum analyzers, speckle based video systems, bench top materials testing systems for calibration of sensors, and supporting electronic instrumentation.

Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory

Clean-up of the environment calls for innovative scientific and engineering approaches. Geoenvironmental engineering is a field that unites geotechnical engineering with chemistry and biology in an effort to seek new solutions for the future of the environment. To encourage advancement of this promising field, NJIT, with funding from the National Science Foundation, has established a $3 million Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory.

This laboratory serves as a prototype for experimental facilities to be developed nationwide. NJIT is ideally suited to advance geoenvironmental engineering efforts. Interdisciplinary faculty bring broad research and industrial expertise to bear in the laboratory, the classroom and in collaboration with partners from industry and the public sector. NJIT is home to the largest industry/university collaborative hazardous substance research and pollution prevention center in the nation and has been recognized for its ability to find common ground among the private sector, academe and regulatory agencies. The university's location in a region with significant environmental needs heightens the awareness of researchers to the real and pressing issues the field addresses. The Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory, closely associated with NJIT's Center for Environmental Engineering and Science, offers industry access to researchers, students and state-of-the-art facilities.

Geomechanics for Geo-Engineering and Sustainability (GGES) Laboratory

The Geomechanics for Geo-Engineering and Sustainability (GGES) Lab is a vibrant research lab within the John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), actively pushing the frontiers of knowledge. This interdisciplinary research group is broadly focused on geomechanics and geo-engineering with applications to infrastructures, sustainability, energy, and the environment. Our mission is to train the world's best researchers and engineers. The GGES Lab encourages Collaboration, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in all its endeavors.

The Geomechanics for Geo-Engineering and Sustainability (GGES) Lab is working on cutting-edge fundamental studies on the deformation and failure of geomaterials (rock, soil, & cementitious materials) in response to loading (static and dynamic) conditions, and in response to changes in stress, pressure, and temperature; with applications to infrastructure, energy, sustainability, and the environment. Additionally, we study geomaterial-fluid interactions and their implications for thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical processes with applications to infrastructure, energy, sustainability, and the environment. Our lab also investigates mechanical responses dues to rock interactions with biological processes, and their applications to geo-energy resources and climate change mitigation. Based on laboratory studies, our group further develops theoretical and numerical models to predict and mitigate geotechnical-related hazards triggered by natural or man-made causes at multiscale, ultimately elucidating these processes' impact at the field scale. The research areas of interest are:

Fundamental Study: Thermo-Hydro-Chemo-Mechanical (THCM) coupled processes in geomaterials (rock & soil); Engineering properties and behavior of geomaterials (rock, soil, & cemented materials); Biogeomechanics.
Geomechanics & Geo-engineering Application Study: Slope stability; Rock grouting & rock bolt; Underground interactions between geomaterials & cementitious materials; Failure due to underground drilling/excavation; Geotechnical-related hazard prediction & mitigation.
Geo-Resources Application Study: Carbon sequestration; Energy geo-resources; Geothermal energy systems.

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