Civil Engineering

Dr. Latifee delivered a seminar titled ―Miniature Concrete Prism Test – A New Test Method for Evaluating the ASR Potential of Aggregates and the Effectiveness of ASR Mitigation Measures‖ at the Seminar Room of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology on 29th November, 2014. Existing test methods to assess alkali-silica reactivity of aggregates such as the accelerated mortar bar test (AMBT) has been shown to be less than satisfactory due to excessive false-positive and falsenegative test results. While the concrete prism test (CPT) test is considered to be a more reliable alternative, the unusually long test duration (1 or 2 years, depending on the purpose) renders it unsuitable for routine evaluation of materials. This seminar presented a new test method—the miniature concrete prism test (MCPT) that addresses the shortcomings of both the AMBT and the CPT test methods. The aggregates, thirty three in total from USA and Canada, studied in this project were selected based on their established field performance. The MCPT method has been found reliable to assess aggregate reactivity and this method could be used for job mixture evaluation for ASR expansion potential.