Funded Research Projects

Principal Investigator

1)  Title: Mitigation of tenting of transverse cracks and joints in asphalt pavement

Co-PI: Mihai Marasteanu, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMN-TC)

Sponsor: Local Road Research Board (LRRB), Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT)

Fund: $150,900; Start/End: 07-01-2022/06-30-2024.

2)  Title: Towards the Development of Pavement-Specific Structural Synthetic Fibers

Co-PI: Mr. Gerald J. Welch, FORTA Corporation; Clifford N. MacDonald, Vigilant Enterprise LLC

Sponsor: National Road Research Alliance (NRRA)

Fund: $99,972; Start/End: 01-01-2021/12-31-2023.

3)  Title: Optimizing Asphalt Mixture Designs for Low-Volume Roads of Minnesota

Co-PI: Mihai Marasteanu, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMN-TC)

Sponsor: Local Road Research Board (LRRB), Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT)

Fund: $161,333; Start/End: 07-01-2019/06-30-2021

4)  Title: Establishing Fresh Properties of Fiber Reinforced Concrete for Performance Engineered Mixture (PEM)

Sponsor: Transportation Research Innovation Group (TRIG), MnDOT

Fund: $147,070; Start/End: 07-01-2019/06-30-2021

5)  Title: Performance Benefits of Fiber-reinforced Concrete Pavement and Overlays

Sponsor: National Road Research Alliance (NRRA); Pooled fund, participant states - MN, IA, WI, MI, IL, MO, ND, and CA, and many paving industries

Fund: $149,999; Start/End: 11-01-2017/10-31-2020

6)  Title: Cost/Benefit Analysis of the Effectiveness of Crack Sealing Techniques

Sponsor: LRRB, MnDOT

Fund: $108,504; Start/End: 07-01-2017/06-30-2019

7)  Title: Comparison of Performances of Structural Fibers and Development of a Specification for using Structural Fibers in Thin Concrete Overlays

Sponsor: LRRB and TRIG, MnDOT

Fund: $153,972; Start/End: 07-01-2016/06-30-2018

8)  Title: Comprehensive Field Evaluation of Asphalt Patching Techniques and Development of Best Practices Manual and Simple Decision Tree

Sponsor: LRRB and TRIG, MnDOT

Fund: $87,106; Start/End: 04-30-2014/06-30-2017

9)  Title: Development of a portable data acquisition system for concrete-related research and teaching

Co-PIs: Ben Dymond, Mary Christiansen

Sponsor: University of Minnesota Duluth

Fund: $5,283; Start/End: 11-27-2017/12-31-2018

10)  Title: Purchase of Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT)/ Asphalt Standard Tester behavior of concrete

Sponsor: Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Minnesota

Fund: $120,000 (University of Minnesota System - $60,000; UMD’s match - $60,000; Start/End: 07-01-2016/06-30-2016

11)  Title: Disc-Shaped Compact Tension Testing for Local Government/ Cracking Resistance of Asphalt Mixtures with and without Fiber Reinforcement

Sponsor: St. Louis County, Minnesota

Fund: $6,587; Start/End: 02-29-2016/05-31-2016

12)  Title: Development of test setups for characterization of flexural strength and load transfer behavior of concrete

Sponsor: University of Minnesota Duluth

Budget: $3,000; Start/End: 01-15-2016/12-15-2016

Co-Principal Investigator

13) Title: Sawing and Sealing Joints in Bituminous Pavements to Control Cracking

PI: Mihai Marasteanu (UMN-TC)

Co-PIs: Manik Barman

Sponsor: Local Road Research Board (LRRB), Minnesota

Fund: $160,813; Start/End: 07-01-2023/06-30-2025

14) Title: Cost Estimate of B vs. C Grade Asphalt Binders

PI: Mihai Marasteanu (UMN-TC)

Co-PIs: Manik Barman

Sponsor: Local Road Research Board (LRRB), Minnesota

Fund: $169,776; Start/End: 07-01-2021/06-30-2023

15) Title: Taconite as a Lower Cost Alternative high Friction Surface Treatment to Calcined Bauxite for Low Volume Roads in Minnesota

PI: Larry Zanko (NRRI)

Co-PIs: Manik Barman, Mihai Marasteanu (UMN-TC)

Sponsor: MnDOT

Fund: $322,250; Start/End: 07-01-2020/12-31-2023

16) Title: Developing Civil Engineering Outreach Kits Targeting Early Elementary, Late Elementary, Middle, and High School Audiences

PI: David Saftner

Co-PIs: Manik Barman, Mary Christiansen, and Rebecca Teasley

Sponsor: University of Minnesota Duluth

Fund: $3,000; Start/End: 08-01-2016/08-31-2017

17) Title: Evaluating Locally-Sourced Sanding Materials for Road Salt Reduction

PI: Chan Lan Chun

Co-PIs: Manik Barman, Larry Zanko (NRRI)

Sponsor: Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources

Fund: $162,000; Start/End: 07-01-2019/06-30-2021

18)  Title: Experimental and Computational Investigations of High-Density Asphalt Mixtures

PI: Dr. Mihai Marasteanu(UMN-TC)

Co-PIs: Manik Barman, Jia-liang Le (UMN-TC), Kimberly Hill (UMN-TC)

Sponsor: MnDOT

Fund: $150,935; Start/End: 07-01-2017/04-30-2020

19) Title: Influence of Fiber Dosage on the Residual Strength Ratio of Fiber Reinforced Concrete

PI: Dr. Mary Christiansen

Co-PI: Manik Barman

Sponsor: American Engineering Testing (AET)

Fund: $4,999; Start/End: 07-01-2017/09-30-2017

Research  Funds from 2015 to present