Civil engineering graduate student research informs concrete piling industry
Much has happened in the two years since Tom Vande Voort graduated from Iowa State with a BS in civil engineering and enrolled in the civil engineering graduate program. He has progressed from a bewildering first day, when he looked at a project and wondered where to start, to a seasoned researcher in a project that is attracting national attention.
The accomplished student with a strong academic record confesses he had no idea how much knowledge he was not grasping as an undergraduate student, but that changed when he began working with research on a graduate level.
The research project that changed Vande Voort’s perspective looks at the use of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) for pilings in bridge foundations. This is a recent application for UHPC, which has not often been used for foundations. UHPC has proven to be durable; the first vehicular bridge using UHPC to be built in the United States is now in use in Wapello County, Iowa.
Vande Voort faced a challenge in the design of the UHPC cross section. A normal concrete pile cross section would look like a square; UHCP is a high-cost material and had to be used efficiently, so he designed the cross section in an “I” shape. His design was cast into to two piles, each 35 feet long, and some shorter pieces for lab testing. The long piles were driven into the ground near Osceola, Iowa, on a site near a bridge. Steel piles, normally used by the DOT, were also driven so that driving ease and load test comparisons could be made. During lateral load pushing, the UHCP piles outperformed the steel piles in many ways.
It’s not difficult for Vande Voort to appreciate the many aspects of graduate studies involved in this project. He was able to apply and further develop skills in analytical and computer modeling, testing in a controlled lab environment, and testing in the field. Throughout this research experience, he has been mentored by his major professor, Sri Sritharan, and by Mohannad Suleiman, a lecturer in civil, construction, and environmental engineering.
The work with UHPC has garnered some national attention, giving Vande Voort the satisfaction of being part of something that could significantly affect the piling industry. For him, the opportunity to be engaged in this project from the beginning has provided great satisfaction. He enjoyed preparing a computer model of his design, seeing it physically built and tested, then summarizing the findings, tying them together, and presenting the research at conferences and for journal publication. He sees a promising career as a structural design engineer in his future.
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