Facilities

The MatSLab @ NJIT

The Materials and Structures Laboratory is located in Weston Hall on New Jersey Institute of Technology's campus in Newark, NJ. The laboratory is equipped to do computational analysis, experimental testing, and advanced materials characterization of concrete and other infrastructure materials at scales ranging from nanometers to meters. The 3,200-square foot MatSLab is outfitted with a large array of mechanical and structural properties testing equipment, durability testing equipment, and materials characterization equipment. Member of the laboratory also have access to shared NJIT resources such as the advanced analytical equipment in the York Center and fabrication equipment in the Makerspace.

Structural Testing Frames

The MatsLab has several structural testing frames that provides the possibility of testing columns and beams in fully scaled sizes as structures. This machine can be used for testing both steel and reinforced concrete members.

Strength Measurement

The MatSLab has several smaller systems for measuring mechanical properties of specimens, including compressive strength, tensile strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and flexural strength.

  • 700-kip Forney Compression Machine

  • Tensile device in MatSLab

  • Screw device in materials lab upstairs colton

  • Compression machine in Colton

  • Split Tension machine in Colton

  • Beam tester in colton

Moist Curing Chamber

The laboratory is outfitted with a 200-square foot moist curing room that maintains a relative humidity of ≥ 95% and temperature of 23 °C. This space is used for curing concrete specimens.

In addition to the moist curing room, the laboratory also has several lime water tanks that maintain a temperature of 23°C or warmer as necessary to cure concrete under water.

Dry Curing Chamber

The laboratory is outfitted with a 200-square foot dry curing room that maintains a relative humidity of 50% and temperature of 23 °C. This space is used for drying shrinkage testing and corrosion testing of concrete as well as condition sampling for particular projects.


Durability Testing

  • Freeze Thaw

  • Corrosion testing

    • Half-Cell Potential

    • Chloride profiling

    • Surface resistivity

    • Potential

  • Drying Shrinkage

  • Salt Scaling

  • ASR Testing

Computational Modeling

The laboratory is equipped with two powerful computational workstations. Each of them is installed with structural analysis software DIANA FEA and durability analysis software COMSOL Multi-physics. Other numerical tools such as ETABS, OpenSees, and MATLAB are also available.

Concrete and Mortar Mixing

Mixers

  • 5 L. countertop mixer for mortars

  • Standard 6 cu. Ft. drum mixer for mixing normal concrete

  • High speed 0.5 cu. yd. planetary counter current mixer for mixing ductile concrete systems with fibers

Fresh properties measurements

  • Slump test

  • Concrete and mortar flow tests

  • Air content

  • Concrete temperature

  • Setting time (Vicat and mortar penetration)

  • Fresh density

Aggregate Characterization

Sieves

Crushers

Absorption capacity and density

LA Abrasion

Soundness testing

Advanced Materials Characterization

The laboratory is equipped to prepare samples for crystal and chemical analysis in adjacent Otto York Center at NJIT. The laboratory is also capable of running acid soluble chloride titration analysis

SEM/XRD Prep

  • Sample cutting

  • Epoxy mounting

  • Sample polishing

  • Sample grinding

Acid Soluble Titration

  • Chemical prep

  • Titration setup with electrodes to determine equivalence point


Field Investigation Equipment

The laboratory is equipped with a range of field investigation equipment. These devices are designed to be used in the field to determine in-situ characteristics of concrete structures. In a laboratory setting, these tests help to provide useful data on the strength and quality of concrete in an efficient manner.

  • Pull-off Testing (ASTM C1583)

  • Schmidt hammer (ASTM C805)

  • Surface resistivity (ASTM C1202)

  • Imaging

Curing and Conditioning

The laboratory is equipped to test or store samples in the frozen state or at elevated temperatures

Ovens

  • 1 double door standing

  • 1 single door standing

  • 2 table top

Fridge/Freezers

  • 1 standing freezer

  • 1 standing fridge freezer combo

Fabrication Shop

The laboratory is equipped with a machining shop which can be used for many different phases of projects. The space is equipped with a CNC mill, lathe, and welding shop and can be used for tasks such as cutting and tapping rebar, inducing damage to epoxy coated rebar, and concrete profiling for chloride analysis.

Other Available Facilities

York Center

The Otto H. York Center for Environmental Engineering and Science (YCEES) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) offers core laboratory facilities as a resource for the university and for contract research. It has been the home of many interdisciplinary research programs and initiatives. The York Center was the first building in the nation especially constructed for cooperative public and private research in hazardous waste management.

Relevant Facilities

  • X-Ray Diffraction Analysis

  • SEM and XRD Analysis

  • Thermogravimetric Analysis

  • Mass Spectrometry

  • CT Scanner

  • Particle Size Analysis

NJIT Makerspace

The NJIT Makerspace is a rapid prototyping and collaboration facility where engineers, architects, designers, and scientists can create and test ideas, put theory into practice, and turn ideas into reality. This 21st-century prototyping, manufacturing, and collaborative space allows students, faculty, and industry partners, to build physical systems in a functional and inspirational environment.

The 10,000 square-foot Makerspace is the largest of its kind in New Jersey and houses the industrial-grade tools and technologies that today’s STEM students must master in order to become tomorrow’s innovators and leaders. It provides them a venue where they can test ideas, visualize, create prototypes, and apply complex technologies, machines, and materials used in state-of-the-art manufacturing. Through this process all participants gain real-world experience across an array of industries. Among other functions, the Makerspace offers equipment and devices for 3D printing, additive manufacturing, material cutting and shaping, metrology, visualization, computing, emulation, and simulation.

NJIT Supercomputing

NJIT is in the process of standardizing on groups ("clusters") of commodity computers as the vehicle for providing high performance computing services for researchers. A cluster is a computing approach with a large number of processors with very high-speed interconnects under the control of specialized scheduling and resource management software. Clusters are designed for parallel processing. These computer nodes can act independently, or in parallel, to handle large-scale computationally demanding tasks. The user interacts with the cluster via scheduling and resource management software. This software can perform the same functions for groups of clusters (or other computational elements).

Relevant Facilities

  • HPC on Kong

  • HPC on Stheno

  • HT Condor