Research

Desktop Only

77

Researchers

78

Projects

120

Partners

200+

Student Researchers

From Innovation to Implementation

Click Here for TIDC Project Search

Monitoring & Assessment for Enhanced Life

Managing aging civil infrastructure is a major challenge facing every country in the world. Research conducted in this area tackles this issue through the development and implementation of novel strategies for the assessment and health monitoring of highway bridges, rail structures, pavements, and foundations. The resulting picture of the health of these vital elements of our transportation infrastructure will provide the information required to prioritize repair and replacement, while advanced assessment will allow structures to remain in service longer.

See All Thrust Area 1 Research Projects

New Materials for Longevity and Constructability

This thrust area investigates new materials and technologies to improve durability and extend the life of transportation infrastructure. The materials and technologies investigated will improve multi-modal transportation connections.

See All Thrust Area 2 Research Projects

 New Systems for Longevity and Constructability

This thrust area focuses on the evaluation, development, and application of engineering systems to improve the durability and longevity of new and existing transportation infrastructure.  In these times of economic austerity, New England’s transit networks face challenges related to cold weather, aging, deterioration, evolving load demands, and construction efficiencies. Addressing these issues, applicable to both roadway and railway modes of transit will alleviate existing and future financial strain on the region.

See All Thrust Area 3 Research Projects

Connectivity for Enhanced Asset & Performance Management

Managing aging civil infrastructure is a major challenge facing every country in the world. Research conducted in this area tackles this issue through the development and implementation of novel strategies for the assessment and health monitoring of highway bridges, rail structures, pavements, and foundations. The resulting picture of the health of these vital elements of our transportation infrastructure will provide the information required to prioritize repair and replacement, while advanced assessment will allow structures to remain in service longer.

See All Thrust Area 4 Research Projects

TIDC submits a Semi-Annual Progress Report to the U.S. Department of Transportation each year on April 30th and October 30th. The purpose of the Report is to inform them of the progress toward our research goals and the accomplishments of the research funded under the UTC grant.

Click to download Semi-Annual Report

April 2019
April 2020
April 2021
April 2022
October 2019
October 2020
October 2021
October 2022

Facilities & Capabilities

Advanced Structures & Composites Center

The Advanced Structures and Composites Center includes fully equipped, integrated laboratories to develop and test durable, lightweight, corrosion-resistant material solutions for a wide variety of industries. We offer expertise in large-scale and coupon-level instrumentation and testing, composites manufacturing, and analysis, and finite element analysis. Click here for more information.

The mission of the Alfond Manufacturing Lab is to increase the market prevalence of structural thermoplastics through the demonstration of automated, advanced manufacturing techniques. This lab was developed to facilitate research in long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites.

  • Two 55,000-lb Instron/compression hydraulic actuators with 20-in stroke 
  • Two 110,000-lb Instron/compression hydraulic actuators with 20-in stroke 
  • A 300,000-lb Instron/compression hydraulic actuator with 20-in stroke 
  • A Servo-Hydraulic Digital Structural Test System that allows up to ten actuators in a single test setup for independent simultaneous tests.
  • A Reaction Wall made of reinforced concrete. The wall 21′ tall and movable contains reaction points on a 2′ grid, is post-tensioned to the reaction floor, and can be reconfigured to support multiaxis loading configurations. 
  • ARAMIS & PONTOS Measuring Systems. Non-contact systems to measure 3D surface displacements and strains in dynamically loaded test objects.
  • A Flow Mach 4 Waterjet. This machine runs at 55,000 PSI with a 30 HP pump motor and comes with a dynamic cutting head, which enables 3D cutting and cuts that are more “square” than non-dynamic cuts.
  • Ingersoll- MasterPrint 3x
    The print volume is 60′ (18.3m) long, 22′ (6.7m) wide, and 10′ (3m) high. The printer can print at 150lbs (68kg)/hour, is being upgraded to 500lbs (227kg)/hour, and utilizes a 5-axis machine head. The World’s Largest Polymer 3D printer.
  • Juggerbot3D – Tradesman Series P3-44
    The print volume is 39″ x 39″ x 39″. You can learn more about this printer here.
  • Cincinnati – BAAM 606
    The print volume is 140″ long, 65″ wide, and 72″ tall. You can learn more about this printer here.
  • Instrumentation
    In addition to printing, the ASCC has the capability to install instrumentation such as visual cameras, thermal cameras, profilometers, and DIC cameras to monitor the printing process.

University of Connecticut College of Engineering

  • Machine Shop
    The School of Engineering at UConn has a fully equipped, 6,000 ft.2 machine shop. It is equipped with state-of-the-art metal, plastic, and woodworking machinery valued in excess of $1 million. The machine shop is used to construct and fabricate various test-set up and components of testbeds that are needed for the experimental investigation in this project.
  • School of Engineering Computer Laboratories
    The School of Engineering and the University have several states–of–the–art computer labs with high-speed computing capacities. The labs also have several modern computational and numerical structural analysis software, including finite element codes ABAQUS and ANSYS, and Statistical packages that will be used in the proposed research.

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) at UConn has several facilities and labs that house numerous state-of-the-art instruments, devices, and equipment. These facilities/labs are closely related to transportation infrastructure research and teaching. CEE’s labs are geared toward studies in the fields of Structures & Applied Mechanics, Transportation & Urban Engineering, Geo-Technology & Geo-Materials, and Water Resources & Environmental Engineering.
The following CEE Labs work to combine both teaching and research activities in nearly 17,000 ft.2 of space in the Castleman and Bronwell buildings.

  • Structures and Applied Mechanics Lab
  • Fiber Optics Sensor and Energy Harvesting Laboratory
  • Concrete and Materials Laboratory
  •  Advanced Cementitious Materials and Composites (ACMC) Laboratory
  • Geotechnical Laboratory
  • Geoenvironmental Engineering Lab
  • Hydraulics Lab
  • Surveying Lab
  • Environmental Monitoring Lab
  • Water Quality Lab

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) at UConn has several facilities and labs that house numerous state-of-the-The Cyber-Physical System Laboratory (CPSL) at UConn is equipped with multiple high-performance servers, more than one hundred 802.15.4-based and 802.11-based wireless sensor boards to form multiple real-time wireless testbeds (WirelessHART, 6TiSCH, RT-WiFi), many sensors, actuators, gateways, diagnostic & testing tools donated from industrial collaborators. The main research focus of the lab is on three major areas in system research which are: 

  • 1) real-time wireless protocol design, analysis, implementation, and validation, including transportation infrastructure cyber security; 
  • 2) advanced human-computer interface research for controlling smart environments; and 
  • 3) elastic computing platform design for real-time data analytics and control.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

  • Dynamics, Sensing, Controls Laboratory
    The Dynamics, Sensing, and Controls Laboratory (DSCL) has 500 ft.2 in the Engineering & Science Building. The lab has received significant funding from federal agencies (NSF, DOD, DHS, DARPA) and local industries. The DSCL possesses state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for sensor development, signal processing/analysis, and fault detection/diagnosis.

The Institute of Material Science

  • The Institute of Materials Science (IMS) was established in 1965 by the Connecticut General Assembly to maintain an advanced materials research center, provide superior graduate research education in the interdisciplinary fields of materials science and engineering, and provide materials-related technical outreach to Connecticut’s industries. IMS operates and maintains extensive state-of-the-art instrumentation including a wide range of laboratories. The Institute houses a wide range of advanced research instruments, test equipment, and facilities useful for material research relevant to transportation infrastructure. Support facilities include an electronics shop and an instrument and machine shop. More information can be found at the link https://www.ims.uconn.edu/

The  Taylor L. Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technology (BECAT)

BECAT is a center at UConn that caters to the High-Performance Computer (HPC) needs of the University and houses a CPU/GPU cluster. This system is a high-end, 64-node, 768-core HPC cluster, named HORNET. This cluster contains both CPU and GPU resources, providing a massive amount of computing power. This facility is available to researchers to meet the computational modeling and simulation. Each node of the 64 nodes in the Hornet cluster has:

  • 12 Intel Xeon X5650 Westmere cores (total of 768 cores across the entire cluster)
  • 48 GB of RAM (total of 3 TB of RAM across the entire cluster)
  • 500 GB of local storage (32 TB on 64 spindles)

Additionally, four of the nodes have been designated GPU nodes. Each of these nodes contains 8 NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPUs. The nodes are configured to use an LSF job scheduler and fiber optic Infiniband networking. 16 TB of RAID 6 protected storage is made available to all nodes via NFS.  More information on BECAT can be found at https://becat.uconn.edu/

Connecticut Transportation Institute

CTI is a research center within the School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut and is very active in its mission to conduct transportation-related research, outreach, and technology transfer. CTI personnel and affiliated faculty members have continued to serve on national, regional, and state committees that have increased CTI’s prominence at all levels. It’s emerged as a national leader in crash data analysis as CTI houses Connecticut’s vehicle crash data records management.  The Connecticut Crash Data Repository project at CTI is providing researchers, town engineers, planners, and the public with unprecedented access to crash data for transportation safety analysis.  The success of this project resulted in Conn DOT expanding the funding of the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center at CTI. More information about CTI can be found at http://www.cti.uconn.edu/.

In 1995, the Connecticut Advanced Pavement Laboratory (CAP Lab) was established by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (Department) and the University of Connecticut (UConn). The CAP Lab is an AMRL-Certified Materials Testing Facility that provides guidance on hot mix asphalt material design for the HMA industry, education and training services on HMA subjects for engineers, technicians and inspectors, and technical assistance on paving mix acceptance and field construction, and research on HMA problems.

The Technology Transfer Center (T2 Center) at the University of Connecticut is Connecticut’s Local Technical Assistance Program, one of the 58 centers in the United States. Our Center provides education and technical assistance to Connecticut’s Transportation and Public Safety Community members on transportation-related issues. The T2 Center serves Connecticut’s Transportation and Public Safety Community members, including municipal public works directors, street and road maintenance superintendents and staff, city and town engineers, Connecticut Department of Transportation employees, transportation planners, and law enforcement professionals serving as legal traffic authorities.

The Connecticut Crash Data Repository (CTCDR) is a web tool designed to provide access to select crash information collected by state and local police. This data repository enables users to query, analyze and print/export the data for research and informational purposes. The CTCDR is comprised of crash data from two separate sources; The Department of Public Safety (DPS) and The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT). The purpose of the CTCDR is to provide members of the traffic-safety community with timely, accurate, complete and uniform crash data. The CTCDR allows for complex queries of both datasets such as, by date, route, route class, collision type, injury severity, etc. For further analysis, this data can be summarized by user-defined categories to help identify trends or patterns in the crash data. 

University of Massachusetts Lowell

The facilities and resources to perform research within the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s (CEE) Electromagnetic Sensing Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering’s (ME) Structural Dynamics and Acoustic Systems Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s (ECE) Laboratory of Optics, and Department of Plastic Engineering’s (PE) Core Research Facilities.

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Testing Equipment includes:

  • Ground Penetrating Radar, 1.6 GHz, Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. 
  • Ground Penetrating Radar, 0.3 GHz,  0.8 GHz, Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. 
  • Ultrasonic System, 54 kHz, Proceq SA
  • Empact Echo System, NDE 360, Olson Instruments, Inc. 
  • Half-Cell Potential Sensor (Elcometer 331 Covermeters & Half-Cell Meters), Elcometer, Inc.
  • Rebound Hammer (Digital Schmidt Hammer), Proceq SA
  • Thermal Infrared Camera, FLIR E40BX, FLIR systems, Inc.
  • Electromagnetic Anechoic Chamber, 1 GHz ~ 18 GHz
  • Biaxial Positioner, Parker Hannifin Corporation
  • Sony PXW-FS5 XDCAM Super 35 Camera System, resolution 11.6MP, Sony Corporation
  • BOTDR (Brillouin Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer) Omnisens Vision SA
  • Fitel S179 Fusion Splicer, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.
  • Venturi Tunable Laser, TLB-6600, Newport Corporation
  • Optical Sensing Analyzer, SI720, Micron Optics, Inc.
  • Nanosecond Laser, SLI-10, Continuum Electro-Optics, Inc.

University of Rhode Island

The University of Rhode Island has a variety of laboratory, field, and computational facilities that are available to support a wide range of transportation research projects. The laboratory facilities include test equipment that can be used to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of civil engineering materials including concrete, asphalt, and soil. Field equipment includes a trailer mounted Cone Penetration Test (CPT) used for subsurface investigations. Dedicated computers and specialized software are available for numerical modeling and simulation. There are other facilities outside the University that may also be available for use through specific collaborative projects with RIDOT and/or industry. This includes, for example, RIDOTs vehicle-mounted Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system. 

Rhode Island Transporation Research Center (RITRC)

  • Marshall, Hveem, and Superpave mix design sets
  • Soil resilient modulus tester
  • Superpave Indirect Tension Tester (IDT)
  • Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) binder test setup
  • Automatic Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA)
  • Portable Falling  Weight Deflectometer (FWD)
  • 25 kip servo-hydraulic testing system which can be used for various static and dynamic loading modes, such as resilient modulus, dynamic modulus, fatigue, flexure and creep, and Simple Performance Test (SPT) or Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT).
  • Walk-in environmental chamber, which has temperature ranges from -12o to 60oC (10o to 140oF).

University of Vermont

All PIs have laboratory spaces (geotechnical, structural, hydraulics, materials, surveying, spatial analysis, imaging labs), access to machine shops and two technicians, and an Advanced Computing Center.

Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory 

  • Fully automated triaxial and direct shear devices are available. The triaxial apparatus also accommodates flexible wall permeability, consolidation, and stress path testing. The direct shear device also allows reversal testing. A variety of sensors (load cells, displacement transducers, pore pressure transducers, bender elements, etc.) are also available.
  • A torsional ring shear device (Torshear Digital Bromhead).
  • Hole erosion test apparatus.
  • Field jet erosion test apparatus.
  • Single and double ring field infiltrometers.
  • Borehole shear test device for in-situ shear strength measurements.
  • Sensors – moisture, temperature, suction, turbidity probes, lysimeters, weather stations. SLI-10, Continuum Electro-Optics, Inc.
  • CKC automated cyclic triaxial device, which is upgraded with some new hardware and updated to a National Instruments-based data acquisition system. One of the triaxial cells is fitted with bender elements.
  • A 51 cm diameter, flexible wall calibration chamber is available. Variable sample heights are possible. The chamber has allowances to apply vacuum and accommodate saturated samples including back pressure saturation capabilities and pore pressure measurements. A set of two bender elements and an internal miniature pore pressure transducer have been incorporated into the calibration chamber. Another 15-cm diameter, flexible wall calibration chamber is also available.
  • A 1.1 cm diameter piezocone made by Fugro – Associated driving mechanism was designed in-house, which allows a total travel distance of 75 cm and varying penetration rates, including 2 cm/s. This piezocone could be used with both calibration chambers mentioned above.
  • A set of flat plate piezoceramics transducers along with a function generator, oscilloscope, and NER AutoLab data acquisition software are available. This system was developed in collaboration with New England Research, Inc. (NER), a small R&D firm in Vermont. The system can also be used for bender elements.
  • Terrestrial LiDAR system (RIEGL VZ-1000 Terrestrial LiDAR)
  • Instructional geotechnical centrifuge.
  • Specialized equipment for laboratory testing of pervious concrete.
  • Autoscan II for laboratory surface permeability measurements of porous materials.
  • TinyPerm II for field surface permeability measurements of porous materials.
  • Freeze-thaw chamber.
  • Equipment to perform grain size, Atterberg limits, moisture and density, standard and modified Proctor, constant and falling head permeability tests, a sieve shaker, and automatic standard and modified Proctor compactor are available.
  • Bruker Skyscan 1173 micro-CT. The equipment uses a 5 Mp (2,240 x 2,240 pixels) X-ray camera and 130 kV source. Specimens as big as 140 mm wide and 140 mm high can be scanned. A maximum resolution of 6 microns can be achieved depending on the specimen size. The advanced visualization software allows particular density ranges in a sample to be highlighted or hidden, spinning, and slicing to view internal structures; movies can be made of all these operations to enhance the dissemination of the results. Both the imaging and analysis are non-destructive, making this technique more attractive than some other conventional (and destructive) tests.
  • Split box, vertical cut, and simple direct shear devices for shear strength testing.
  • AutoLab 1500 – Manufactured by NER Inc. is a fully functional triaxial apparatus designed to perform coupled processes experiments on rock specimens for petrophysical, mechanical, and flow characterization at high confining pressure, pore pressure, and temperature. Some of the key features of the instrument are deformation experiments for conventional and specialized loading paths; servo-hydraulic control of strain rate, force, confining pressure, pore pressure, and flow rate; pore pressure intensifier compatible with water, brine, oil, and gas (including CO2); control of pressures and temperature at reservoir conditions; and integrated electronics console for servo amplifiers and signal conditioning.
  • A surface grinder manufactured by Clausing Industrial Inc., (Model: CSG618H) is a high-precision grinding machine used to grind the end surfaces of rock specimens for geomechanical and flow testing. The instrument’s high precision cartridge type spindle supported by preloaded precision angular contact ball bearings and roller bearing and driven by a V3 class motor allows highly accurate grinding performance.

Additional Laboratory Equipment

Equipment used by Professor Huston

  • Agilent AT-N5241A 10 MHz to 13.5 GHz PNA-X network analyzer with nonlinear X-parameter and intermodulation distortion measurement capabilities.
  • Agilent Infinium 54854A 0 – 4 GHZ 8-bit digitizing oscilloscope.   
  • Agilent E4440A PSA Series Spectrum Analyzer (3 Hz – 26.5 GHz) with 1-4GHz band defective
  • HP 8753D 30 MHz to 6 GHz Network Analyzer 
  • Three A.H. Systems SAS-571 Double Ridge Guide Horn Antennas with a nominal frequency range of  700 MHz – 18 GHz.   
  • A.H. Systems  SAS-510-2 Log Periodic Antenna with a frequency range of  290 MHz – 2 GHz.  
  • A.H. Systems PAM-0118 Low Noise Preamplifier
  • Picosecond Pulse Labs Pulse Generator Model 4015D, a high-frequency pulse generator with 12 ps transition time.  Accessories include the following waveform shapers:  PPL  5915-110-XGHZ Low-Pass Filter, PPL Model 5216 Impulse Forming Network, and PPL Model 5510K attenuator.
  • Agilent ADS software that includes X-parameter modeling capability.
  • Olympus optical comparator
  • Picosecond Pulse Labs Pulse Generator Model 4015D, a high-frequency pulse generator with a 12 ps transition time.  Accessories include the following waveform shapers:  PPL  5915-110-XGHZ Low-Pass Filter, PPL Model 5216 Impulse Forming Network, and PPL Model 5510K attenuator.
  • Time Domain PulsON® 400 RCM Development Kit with 4 UWB transceivers 
  • Two Sick lidars
  • Custom-built dual-band GPR system (400 MHz, 1.6 GHz) 
  • Custom-built multi-static GPR system with full waveform digitization on up to 6 channels.
  • Mala CX-12 handheld GPR with 2.6 GHz antenna
  • KT-U2000A USB Microwave Power Sensor, 10MHz- 18GHz  
  • AT-N5181B MXG X-Series RF Analog Signal Generator 6 GHz  
  • Electro-Metrics EM-6992 Electromagnetic Probe Set 1 GHz  
  • At-N8241A 15 bit 1.25 GHz Arbitrary Waveform Generator with LXI Module 
  • Geophysical Survey Systems SIR 30 Dual Channel Ground Penetrating Radar System with 400 MHz and 1600 MHz channels 
  • APS ElectroSeis 25 long stroke electromagnetic shaker 25 lbf, 0 – 100 Hz
  • Wilcoxin F4 short-stroke electromagnetic shaker 10 lbf, 50 – 20,000 Hz
  • HoloLens (on long term loan from US Ignite)

Fabrication Facilities

An extensive machine shop and electronics shops are available within the College of Engineering & Mathematics at the University of Vermont, which can be used by researchers with proper training. The shops currently have full-time technicians who also help with the fabrication of instructional items.  Additionally, the College maintains the UVM FabLab for rapid prototyping of designs using 3-D printing, laser cutting, and laser engraving. These facilities are available to fabricate devices for some of the experiments for the proposed research and educational activities.

Western New England University

Concrete Testing Lab and Imaging Facility

The Concrete Laboratory in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Western New England University is equipped with a set of testing machines that enable researchers and their students to conduct various material tests (Figure 1).  Furthermore, two 8-multi-core Xeron processors with 128 GB RAM workstations are available to perform extensive numerical studies. Major instruments available for this project are:

  • Two concrete compression machines (1,112 KN)
  • TestResources 316Q universal testing machine
  • Concrete curing cabinet

In addition, the WNE research team has full access to the Microscope Imaging Facility which has a set of microscopes that can be utilized for taking images and investigating damage to samples. FEI Phenom SEM (Figure 2) will be adopted for taking images of samples whose scale ranges from a few microns to 100 microns. A nano-scale micro-damage (or atomic-scale images) will be detected by either Atomic Force Microscope Veeco Nanoscope V (Figure 3) or NMR spectroscopy Eft-90 (Figure 4) in the facility. Brief specifications are as listed below:

  • Scanning Electron Microscope
    FEI Phenom; 24000X maximum magnification with a resolution less than 10 nm; Backscattered electron detection
  • Atomic Force Microscope
    Veeco Nanoscope V; Atomic-level resolution; Capability of loading in-situ sample; 125x125x5 microns volume scanning
  • NMR Spectrometer
    Anasazi Instruments, 90MHz Spectrometer

The research team also has full access to other equipment and resources available in the college of engineering at WNEU, including a fully-staffed and fully-equipped 2500- ft2 machine shop with 2 Bridgeport milling machines, 2 manual lathes, 1CNC lathe, 1 CNC mill, and 3 metallographic polishing machines. Major instruments available for this project are:

  • Instron 5569 Universal Testing Machine
  • IDT MotionPro Y4 High-Speed Digital Video Camera
  • Nikon Epiphot-200 Metallograph Microscope with Digital Camera
  • Digital Strain Indicator
  • National Instruments NI PCI 6259 M Serial Multifunction DAQ and NI-DAQ Software
  • Humidity and Temperature Gauges

Mobile Only

77 researchers, 78 projects, 120 partners, 200+ students

From Innovation to Implementation

Click Here for TIDC Project Search

Monitoring & Assessment for Enhanced Life

Managing aging civil infrastructure is a major challenge facing every country in the world. Research conducted in this area tackles this issue through the development and implementation of novel strategies for the assessment and health monitoring of highway bridges, rail structures, pavements, and foundations. The resulting picture of the health of these vital elements of our transportation infrastructure will provide the information required to prioritize repair and replacement, while advanced assessment will allow structures to remain in service longer.

See All Thrust Area 1 Research Projects

New Materials for Longevity and Constructability

This thrust area investigates new materials and technologies to improve durability and extend the life of transportation infrastructure. The materials and technologies investigated will improve multi-modal transportation connections.

See All Thrust Area 2 Research Projects

 New Systems for Longevity and Constructability

This thrust area focuses on the evaluation, development, and application of engineering systems to improve the durability and longevity of new and existing transportation infrastructure.  In these times of economic austerity, New England’s transit networks face challenges related to cold weather, aging, deterioration, evolving load demands, and construction efficiencies. Addressing these issues, applicable to both roadway and railway modes of transit will alleviate existing and future financial strain on the region.

See All Thrust Area 3 Research Projects

Connectivity for Enhanced Asset & Performance Management

Managing aging civil infrastructure is a major challenge facing every country in the world. Research conducted in this area tackles this issue through the development and implementation of novel strategies for the assessment and health monitoring of highway bridges, rail structures, pavements, and foundations. The resulting picture of the health of these vital elements of our transportation infrastructure will provide the information required to prioritize repair and replacement, while advanced assessment will allow structures to remain in service longer.

See All Thrust Area 4 Research Projects

TIDC submits a Semi-Annual Progress Report to the U.S. Department of Transportation each year on April 30th and October 30th. The purpose of the Report is to inform them of the progress toward our research goals and the accomplishments of the research funded under the UTC grant.

Click to download Semi-Annual Report

April 2019
October 2019
April 2020
October 2020
April 2021
October 2021
April 2022
October 2022

Facilities & Capabilities

TIDC consists of 6 member universities in New England. This section includes an overview of the research capabilities of each member university.

Advanced Structures & Composites Center

The Advanced Structures and Composites Center includes fully equipped, integrated laboratories to develop and test durable, lightweight, corrosion-resistant material solutions for a wide variety of industries. We offer expertise in large-scale and coupon-level instrumentation and testing, composites manufacturing, and analysis, and finite element analysis. Click here for more information.

The mission of the Alfond Manufacturing Lab is to increase the market prevalence of structural thermoplastics through the demonstration of automated, advanced manufacturing techniques. This lab was developed to facilitate research in long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites.

  • Two 55,000-lb Instron/compression hydraulic actuators with 20-in stroke 
  • Two 110,000-lb Instron/compression hydraulic actuators with 20-in stroke 
  • A 300,000-lb Instron/compression hydraulic actuator with 20-in stroke 
  • A Servo-Hydraulic Digital Structural Test System that allows up to ten actuators in a single test setup for independent simultaneous tests.
  • A Reaction Wall made of reinforced concrete. The wall 21′ tall and movable contains reaction points on a 2′ grid, is post-tensioned to the reaction floor, and can be reconfigured to support multiaxis loading configurations. 
  • ARAMIS & PONTOS Measuring Systems. Non-contact systems to measure 3D surface displacements and strains in dynamically loaded test objects.
  • A Flow Mach 4 Waterjet. This machine runs at 55,000 PSI with a 30 HP pump motor and comes with a dynamic cutting head, which enables 3D cutting and cuts that are more “square” than non-dynamic cuts.
  • Ingersoll- MasterPrint 3x
    The print volume is 60′ (18.3m) long, 22′ (6.7m) wide, and 10′ (3m) high. The printer can print at 150lbs (68kg)/hour, is being upgraded to 500lbs (227kg)/hour, and utilizes a 5-axis machine head. The World’s Largest Polymer 3D printer.
  • Juggerbot3D – Tradesman Series P3-44
    The print volume is 39″ x 39″ x 39″. You can learn more about this printer here.
  • Cincinnati – BAAM 606
    The print volume is 140″ long, 65″ wide, and 72″ tall. You can learn more about this printer here.
  • Instrumentation
    In addition to printing, the ASCC has the capability to install instrumentation such as visual cameras, thermal cameras, profilometers, and DIC cameras to monitor the printing process.

University of Connecticut College of Engineering

  • Machine Shop
    The School of Engineering at UConn has a fully equipped, 6,000 ft.2 machine shop. It is equipped with state-of-the-art metal, plastic, and woodworking machinery valued in excess of $1 million. The machine shop is used to construct and fabricate various test-set up and components of testbeds that are needed for the experimental investigation in this project.
  • School of Engineering Computer Laboratories
    The School of Engineering and the University have several states–of–the–art computer labs with high-speed computing capacities. The labs also have several modern computational and numerical structural analysis software, including finite element codes ABAQUS and ANSYS, and Statistical packages that will be used in the proposed research.

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) at UConn has several facilities and labs that house numerous state-of-the-art instruments, devices, and equipment. These facilities/labs are closely related to transportation infrastructure research and teaching. CEE’s labs are geared toward studies in the fields of Structures & Applied Mechanics, Transportation & Urban Engineering, Geo-Technology & Geo-Materials, and Water Resources & Environmental Engineering.
The following CEE Labs work to combine both teaching and research activities in nearly 17,000 ft.2 of space in the Castleman and Bronwell buildings.

  • Structures and Applied Mechanics Lab
  • Fiber Optics Sensor and Energy Harvesting Laboratory
  • Concrete and Materials Laboratory
  •  Advanced Cementitious Materials and Composites (ACMC) Laboratory
  • Geotechnical Laboratory
  • Geoenvironmental Engineering Lab
  • Hydraulics Lab
  • Surveying Lab
  • Environmental Monitoring Lab
  • Water Quality Lab

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) at UConn has several facilities and labs that house numerous state-of-the-The Cyber-Physical System Laboratory (CPSL) at UConn is equipped with multiple high-performance servers, more than one hundred 802.15.4-based and 802.11-based wireless sensor boards to form multiple real-time wireless testbeds (WirelessHART, 6TiSCH, RT-WiFi), many sensors, actuators, gateways, diagnostic & testing tools donated from industrial collaborators. The main research focus of the lab is on three major areas in system research which are: 

  • 1) real-time wireless protocol design, analysis, implementation, and validation, including transportation infrastructure cyber security; 
  • 2) advanced human-computer interface research for controlling smart environments; and 
  • 3) elastic computing platform design for real-time data analytics and control.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

  • Dynamics, Sensing, Controls Laboratory
    The Dynamics, Sensing, and Controls Laboratory (DSCL) has 500 ft.2 in the Engineering & Science Building. The lab has received significant funding from federal agencies (NSF, DOD, DHS, DARPA) and local industries. The DSCL possesses state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for sensor development, signal processing/analysis, and fault detection/diagnosis.

The Institute of Material Science

  • The Institute of Materials Science (IMS) was established in 1965 by the Connecticut General Assembly to maintain an advanced materials research center, provide superior graduate research education in the interdisciplinary fields of materials science and engineering, and provide materials-related technical outreach to Connecticut’s industries. IMS operates and maintains extensive state-of-the-art instrumentation including a wide range of laboratories. The Institute houses a wide range of advanced research instruments, test equipment, and facilities useful for material research relevant to transportation infrastructure. Support facilities include an electronics shop and an instrument and machine shop. More information can be found at the link https://www.ims.uconn.edu/

The  Taylor L. Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technology (BECAT)

BECAT is a center at UConn that caters to the High-Performance Computer (HPC) needs of the University and houses a CPU/GPU cluster. This system is a high-end, 64-node, 768-core HPC cluster, named HORNET. This cluster contains both CPU and GPU resources, providing a massive amount of computing power. This facility is available to researchers to meet the computational modeling and simulation. Each node of the 64 nodes in the Hornet cluster has:

  • 12 Intel Xeon X5650 Westmere cores (total of 768 cores across the entire cluster)
  • 48 GB of RAM (total of 3 TB of RAM across the entire cluster)
  • 500 GB of local storage (32 TB on 64 spindles)

Additionally, four of the nodes have been designated GPU nodes. Each of these nodes contains 8 NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPUs. The nodes are configured to use an LSF job scheduler and fiber optic Infiniband networking. 16 TB of RAID 6 protected storage is made available to all nodes via NFS.  More information on BECAT can be found at https://becat.uconn.edu/

Connecticut Transportation Institute

CTI is a research center within the School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut and is very active in its mission to conduct transportation-related research, outreach, and technology transfer. CTI personnel and affiliated faculty members have continued to serve on national, regional, and state committees that have increased CTI’s prominence at all levels. It’s emerged as a national leader in crash data analysis as CTI houses Connecticut’s vehicle crash data records management.  The Connecticut Crash Data Repository project at CTI is providing researchers, town engineers, planners, and the public with unprecedented access to crash data for transportation safety analysis.  The success of this project resulted in Conn DOT expanding the funding of the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center at CTI. More information about CTI can be found at http://www.cti.uconn.edu/.

In 1995, the Connecticut Advanced Pavement Laboratory (CAP Lab) was established by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (Department) and the University of Connecticut (UConn). The CAP Lab is an AMRL-Certified Materials Testing Facility that provides guidance on hot mix asphalt material design for the HMA industry, education and training services on HMA subjects for engineers, technicians and inspectors, and technical assistance on paving mix acceptance and field construction, and research on HMA problems.

The Technology Transfer Center (T2 Center) at the University of Connecticut is Connecticut’s Local Technical Assistance Program, one of the 58 centers in the United States. Our Center provides education and technical assistance to Connecticut’s Transportation and Public Safety Community members on transportation-related issues. The T2 Center serves Connecticut’s Transportation and Public Safety Community members, including municipal public works directors, street and road maintenance superintendents and staff, city and town engineers, Connecticut Department of Transportation employees, transportation planners, and law enforcement professionals serving as legal traffic authorities.

The Connecticut Crash Data Repository (CTCDR) is a web tool designed to provide access to select crash information collected by state and local police. This data repository enables users to query, analyze and print/export the data for research and informational purposes. The CTCDR is comprised of crash data from two separate sources; The Department of Public Safety (DPS) and The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT). The purpose of the CTCDR is to provide members of the traffic-safety community with timely, accurate, complete and uniform crash data. The CTCDR allows for complex queries of both datasets such as, by date, route, route class, collision type, injury severity, etc. For further analysis, this data can be summarized by user-defined categories to help identify trends or patterns in the crash data. 

University of Massachusetts Lowell

The facilities and resources to perform research within the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s (CEE) Electromagnetic Sensing Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering’s (ME) Structural Dynamics and Acoustic Systems Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s (ECE) Laboratory of Optics, and Department of Plastic Engineering’s (PE) Core Research Facilities.

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Testing Equipment includes:

  • Ground Penetrating Radar, 1.6 GHz, Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. 
  • Ground Penetrating Radar, 0.3 GHz,  0.8 GHz, Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. 
  • Ultrasonic System, 54 kHz, Proceq SA
  • Empact Echo System, NDE 360, Olson Instruments, Inc. 
  • Half-Cell Potential Sensor (Elcometer 331 Covermeters & Half-Cell Meters), Elcometer, Inc.
  • Rebound Hammer (Digital Schmidt Hammer), Proceq SA
  • Thermal Infrared Camera, FLIR E40BX, FLIR systems, Inc.
  • Electromagnetic Anechoic Chamber, 1 GHz ~ 18 GHz
  • Biaxial Positioner, Parker Hannifin Corporation
  • Sony PXW-FS5 XDCAM Super 35 Camera System, resolution 11.6MP, Sony Corporation
  • BOTDR (Brillouin Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer) Omnisens Vision SA
  • Fitel S179 Fusion Splicer, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.
  • Venturi Tunable Laser, TLB-6600, Newport Corporation
  • Optical Sensing Analyzer, SI720, Micron Optics, Inc.
  • Nanosecond Laser, SLI-10, Continuum Electro-Optics, Inc.

University of Rhode Island

The University of Rhode Island has a variety of laboratory, field, and computational facilities that are available to support a wide range of transportation research projects. The laboratory facilities include test equipment that can be used to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of civil engineering materials including concrete, asphalt, and soil. Field equipment includes a trailer mounted Cone Penetration Test (CPT) used for subsurface investigations. Dedicated computers and specialized software are available for numerical modeling and simulation. There are other facilities outside the University that may also be available for use through specific collaborative projects with RIDOT and/or industry. This includes, for example, RIDOTs vehicle-mounted Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system. 

Rhode Island Transporation Research Center (RITRC)

  • Marshall, Hveem, and Superpave mix design sets
  • Soil resilient modulus tester
  • Superpave Indirect Tension Tester (IDT)
  • Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) binder test setup
  • Automatic Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA)
  • Portable Falling  Weight Deflectometer (FWD)
  • 25 kip servo-hydraulic testing system which can be used for various static and dynamic loading modes, such as resilient modulus, dynamic modulus, fatigue, flexure and creep, and Simple Performance Test (SPT) or Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT).
  • Walk-in environmental chamber, which has temperature ranges from -12o to 60oC (10o to 140oF).

University of Vermont

All PIs have laboratory spaces (geotechnical, structural, hydraulics, materials, surveying, spatial analysis, imaging labs), access to machine shops and two technicians, and an Advanced Computing Center.

Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory 

  • Fully automated triaxial and direct shear devices are available. The triaxial apparatus also accommodates flexible wall permeability, consolidation, and stress path testing. The direct shear device also allows reversal testing. A variety of sensors (load cells, displacement transducers, pore pressure transducers, bender elements, etc.) are also available.
  • A torsional ring shear device (Torshear Digital Bromhead).
  • Hole erosion test apparatus.
  • Field jet erosion test apparatus.
  • Single and double ring field infiltrometers.
  • Borehole shear test device for in-situ shear strength measurements.
  • Sensors – moisture, temperature, suction, turbidity probes, lysimeters, weather stations. SLI-10, Continuum Electro-Optics, Inc.
  • CKC automated cyclic triaxial device, which is upgraded with some new hardware and updated to a National Instruments-based data acquisition system. One of the triaxial cells is fitted with bender elements.
  • A 51 cm diameter, flexible wall calibration chamber is available. Variable sample heights are possible. The chamber has allowances to apply vacuum and accommodate saturated samples including back pressure saturation capabilities and pore pressure measurements. A set of two bender elements and an internal miniature pore pressure transducer have been incorporated into the calibration chamber. Another 15-cm diameter, flexible wall calibration chamber is also available.
  • A 1.1 cm diameter piezocone made by Fugro – Associated driving mechanism was designed in-house, which allows a total travel distance of 75 cm and varying penetration rates, including 2 cm/s. This piezocone could be used with both calibration chambers mentioned above.
  • A set of flat plate piezoceramics transducers along with a function generator, oscilloscope, and NER AutoLab data acquisition software are available. This system was developed in collaboration with New England Research, Inc. (NER), a small R&D firm in Vermont. The system can also be used for bender elements.
  • Terrestrial LiDAR system (RIEGL VZ-1000 Terrestrial LiDAR)
  • Instructional geotechnical centrifuge.
  • Specialized equipment for laboratory testing of pervious concrete.
  • Autoscan II for laboratory surface permeability measurements of porous materials.
  • TinyPerm II for field surface permeability measurements of porous materials.
  • Freeze-thaw chamber.
  • Equipment to perform grain size, Atterberg limits, moisture and density, standard and modified Proctor, constant and falling head permeability tests, a sieve shaker, and automatic standard and modified Proctor compactor are available.
  • Bruker Skyscan 1173 micro-CT. The equipment uses a 5 Mp (2,240 x 2,240 pixels) X-ray camera and 130 kV source. Specimens as big as 140 mm wide and 140 mm high can be scanned. A maximum resolution of 6 microns can be achieved depending on the specimen size. The advanced visualization software allows particular density ranges in a sample to be highlighted or hidden, spinning, and slicing to view internal structures; movies can be made of all these operations to enhance the dissemination of the results. Both the imaging and analysis are non-destructive, making this technique more attractive than some other conventional (and destructive) tests.
  • Split box, vertical cut, and simple direct shear devices for shear strength testing.
  • AutoLab 1500 – Manufactured by NER Inc. is a fully functional triaxial apparatus designed to perform coupled processes experiments on rock specimens for petrophysical, mechanical, and flow characterization at high confining pressure, pore pressure, and temperature. Some of the key features of the instrument are deformation experiments for conventional and specialized loading paths; servo-hydraulic control of strain rate, force, confining pressure, pore pressure, and flow rate; pore pressure intensifier compatible with water, brine, oil, and gas (including CO2); control of pressures and temperature at reservoir conditions; and integrated electronics console for servo amplifiers and signal conditioning.
  • A surface grinder manufactured by Clausing Industrial Inc., (Model: CSG618H) is a high-precision grinding machine used to grind the end surfaces of rock specimens for geomechanical and flow testing. The instrument’s high precision cartridge type spindle supported by preloaded precision angular contact ball bearings and roller bearing and driven by a V3 class motor allows highly accurate grinding performance.

Additional Laboratory Equipment

Equipment used by Professor Huston

  • Agilent AT-N5241A 10 MHz to 13.5 GHz PNA-X network analyzer with nonlinear X-parameter and intermodulation distortion measurement capabilities.
  • Agilent Infinium 54854A 0 – 4 GHZ 8-bit digitizing oscilloscope.   
  • Agilent E4440A PSA Series Spectrum Analyzer (3 Hz – 26.5 GHz) with 1-4GHz band defective
  • HP 8753D 30 MHz to 6 GHz Network Analyzer 
  • Three A.H. Systems SAS-571 Double Ridge Guide Horn Antennas with a nominal frequency range of  700 MHz – 18 GHz.   
  • A.H. Systems  SAS-510-2 Log Periodic Antenna with a frequency range of  290 MHz – 2 GHz.  
  • A.H. Systems PAM-0118 Low Noise Preamplifier
  • Picosecond Pulse Labs Pulse Generator Model 4015D, a high-frequency pulse generator with 12 ps transition time.  Accessories include the following waveform shapers:  PPL  5915-110-XGHZ Low-Pass Filter, PPL Model 5216 Impulse Forming Network, and PPL Model 5510K attenuator.
  • Agilent ADS software that includes X-parameter modeling capability.
  • Olympus optical comparator
  • Picosecond Pulse Labs Pulse Generator Model 4015D, a high-frequency pulse generator with a 12 ps transition time.  Accessories include the following waveform shapers:  PPL  5915-110-XGHZ Low-Pass Filter, PPL Model 5216 Impulse Forming Network, and PPL Model 5510K attenuator.
  • Time Domain PulsON® 400 RCM Development Kit with 4 UWB transceivers 
  • Two Sick lidars
  • Custom-built dual-band GPR system (400 MHz, 1.6 GHz) 
  • Custom-built multi-static GPR system with full waveform digitization on up to 6 channels.
  • Mala CX-12 handheld GPR with 2.6 GHz antenna
  • KT-U2000A USB Microwave Power Sensor, 10MHz- 18GHz  
  • AT-N5181B MXG X-Series RF Analog Signal Generator 6 GHz  
  • Electro-Metrics EM-6992 Electromagnetic Probe Set 1 GHz  
  • At-N8241A 15 bit 1.25 GHz Arbitrary Waveform Generator with LXI Module 
  • Geophysical Survey Systems SIR 30 Dual Channel Ground Penetrating Radar System with 400 MHz and 1600 MHz channels 
  • APS ElectroSeis 25 long stroke electromagnetic shaker 25 lbf, 0 – 100 Hz
  • Wilcoxin F4 short-stroke electromagnetic shaker 10 lbf, 50 – 20,000 Hz
  • HoloLens (on long term loan from US Ignite)

Fabrication Facilities

An extensive machine shop and electronics shops are available within the College of Engineering & Mathematics at the University of Vermont, which can be used by researchers with proper training. The shops currently have full-time technicians who also help with the fabrication of instructional items.  Additionally, the College maintains the UVM FabLab for rapid prototyping of designs using 3-D printing, laser cutting, and laser engraving. These facilities are available to fabricate devices for some of the experiments for the proposed research and educational activities.

Western New England University

Concrete Testing Lab and Imaging Facility

The Concrete Laboratory in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Western New England University is equipped with a set of testing machines that enable researchers and their students to conduct various material tests (Figure 1).  Furthermore, two 8-multi-core Xeron processors with 128 GB RAM workstations are available to perform extensive numerical studies. Major instruments available for this project are:

  • Two concrete compression machines (1,112 KN)
  • TestResources 316Q universal testing machine
  • Concrete curing cabinet

In addition, the WNE research team has full access to the Microscope Imaging Facility which has a set of microscopes that can be utilized for taking images and investigating damage to samples. FEI Phenom SEM (Figure 2) will be adopted for taking images of samples whose scale ranges from a few microns to 100 microns. A nano-scale micro-damage (or atomic-scale images) will be detected by either Atomic Force Microscope Veeco Nanoscope V (Figure 3) or NMR spectroscopy Eft-90 (Figure 4) in the facility. Brief specifications are as listed below:

  • Scanning Electron Microscope
    FEI Phenom; 24000X maximum magnification with a resolution less than 10 nm; Backscattered electron detection
  • Atomic Force Microscope
    Veeco Nanoscope V; Atomic-level resolution; Capability of loading in-situ sample; 125x125x5 microns volume scanning
  • NMR Spectrometer
    Anasazi Instruments, 90MHz Spectrometer

The research team also has full access to other equipment and resources available in the college of engineering at WNEU, including a fully-staffed and fully-equipped 2500- ft2 machine shop with 2 Bridgeport milling machines, 2 manual lathes, 1CNC lathe, 1 CNC mill, and 3 metallographic polishing machines. Major instruments available for this project are:

  • Instron 5569 Universal Testing Machine
  • IDT MotionPro Y4 High-Speed Digital Video Camera
  • Nikon Epiphot-200 Metallograph Microscope with Digital Camera
  • Digital Strain Indicator
  • National Instruments NI PCI 6259 M Serial Multifunction DAQ and NI-DAQ Software
  • Humidity and Temperature Gauges