Facilities | Smart and Green Infrastructure Lab

^{Smart and Green Infrastructure Lab}

LABORATORY FOR ADVANCED AND SUSTAINABLE CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS (ASCM)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

Why the need for sustainable cementitious materials?

The production of cement is an energy-intensive process that constitutes a significant portion of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases. Concrete is the most widely used manmade building material in the world, and its annual global production is approximately 5.3 billion cubic meters. Cement is the most common binder in concrete, and its annual global production “has reached 2.8 billion tons (t), and it is expected to increase to some 4 billion t.

Durability and sustainability are two increasingly important characteristics for concrete infrastructure, and more research is needed to enable expanded use of industrial wastes as supplementary cementitious materials (SCM)s in concrete without sacrificing its long-term performance and reliability.

Selected Research Products

Sponsors

Washington State Department of Commerce
Washington Research Foundation
M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
National Center for Transportation Infrastructure Durability and Life-Extension (TriDurLE)
Environmentally Responsible Transportation Center for Communities of Concern
Region 10 University Transportation Center: PacTrans
Center for Environmentally Sustainable Transportation in Cold Climates (CESTiCC)
Airport Cooperative Research Program
American Coal Ash Association Educational Foundation
Washington Transportation Improvement Board
Washington State Department of Transportation
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Transportation
Simpson Strong-Tie Inc.
WSU Office of Commercialization

LABORATORY OF CORROSION SCIENCE & ELECTROCHEMICAL ENGINEERING (CSEE)

“The payoff that Oregon has been able to reap from research on bridge preservation and repair has been tremendous … These investments have saved the state of Oregon many millions, and they represent by far the most beneficial research we have undertaken. Given the current state of the aging transportation infrastructure in the USA, bridge preservation is a very smart investment.” Barney P. Jones, Research Manager, Oregon DOT

Corrosion Management Has Lasting Economic and Environmental Impacts

It is in the national interest to achieve better control of materials corrosion and thus preserve the performance and reliability of assets. The direct cost of corrosion to the U.S. infrastructure and transportation system was estimated at $52.3 billion per year, not counting the tremendous indirect costs (traffic delays, lost productivity, etc.). The remediation of concrete bridges in the U.S., undertaken as a direct result of chloride-inducted corrosion of the reinforcing steel, would cost the U.S. highway departments $5 billion per year. In addition, durability is a cornerstone of sustainability.

Selected Research Products

Sponsors

National Science Foundation
National Center for Transportation Infrastructure Durability and Life-Extension (TriDurLE)
Center for Environmentally Sustainable Transportation in Cold Climates (CESTiCC)
Clear Roads Transportation Pooled Fund led by Minnesota Department of Transportation
Washington State Department of Ecology
Washington State Department of Transportation
Simpson Strong-Tie, Inc.
Illinois Center for Transportation
Cougar Cage through WSU Foundation