Characterization and Chemistry of Materials
Garg Group warmly welcomes new set of graduate students joining in the Fall 2020 semester. They are Sonali (MS candidate), Faisal (PhD candidate), and Hossein (PhD candidate) who joined us in August.
We’re looking to expand our group further. Hence, multiple positions for grad students are open for next year. If you want to join us, consider applying.
Concrete used in bridge decks can often be subject to cracking over the years due to many factors such as (but not limited to) shrinkage, excessive loading, and so on. One way to tackle these cracks is to seal them with polymeric sealants to avoid ingress of harmful (and corrosive) species into the structure. However, such sealants can have a limited lifespan requiring frequent crack-sealing over the bridge’s life.
Garg Group has recently obtained funding to study and characterize these sealants in order to determine optimal and desired properties in these polymeric systems. Additionally, we will explore methods to improve crack-sealing procedures and measure the efficacy of these practices in the field, in partnership with our industrial partner ERI. This research will be conducted with the Illinois Center for Transportation and has been funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
We are excited to venture into the field of crack-sealing and sealants, and work towards a long-lasting and sustainable transportation infrastructure.
Concrete is one of the most ubiquitious construction materials due to the widespread availability of its ingredients and economics associated with its procuring and placement. However, all concrete must undergo curing over several days to achieve desired performance in terms of strength and durability. This conventional practice can add delays to projects where rapid deployment of a structure is desired such as opening of a highway or a bridge to the traffic.
Garg Group has recently obtained funding to study this issue and explore methods by which concrete cure times can be effectively reduced. Significant advances can be made by understanding the cement hydration process and the evolution of porosity over the curing duration. In partnership with Illinois Center for Transportation, the work is funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
We are excited to venture into the field of optimizing and advancing concrete structures present in our nation’s transportation infrastructure.
Interest in deploying light-weight materials for engineering infrastructure has been gaining momentum over the past decades, with a focus on new materials, sustainable and innovative design, as well as low life-cycle energy. An adaptive system can change shape in response to environmental stimuli and a deployable system can be quickly installed in extreme conditions. An example of a system that can be both adaptive and deployable is a tensegrity structure, which is primarily composed of bars and cables held in a state of self-stress.
Below are some sample tensegrity structures:
Garg Group in collaboration with SMARTI lab led by Prof. Sychterz has recently obtained funding from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) to pursue the development of a bike parking canopy that is planned to be installed adjacent to the Newmark Civil Engineering Lab Building on UIUC campus. The material of choice for this project will be an aluminum alloy which has a high strength-to-weight ratio. Structural design of the tensegrity structure will be led by Prof. Sychterz and optimization of the aluminum alloy selection will be led by Prof. Garg.
We are excited to venture into this new field of tensegrity structures, aluminum alloys, and their potential applications for sustainable construction!
We typically hire new students during the Fall and the Spring semester. However, we have made an exception this year, and hired a new student during the Summer term. The student is quite young but appears to be highly motivated – which is the key criteria for successful entry in our group.
The student will be initially mentored by a senior member of the group (who was also a summer recruit, a few years ago). An agreement has been made between the two for collaboration, and all concerned parties have kindly agreed.
The (tentative) thesis title for this new student is,
“Novel Mechanisms for Disrupting Parents’ Sleep during Nightime.”
Publications are on their way.
Efficient management of municipal solid waste involves primarily three practices: landfilling, recycling, and incineration for energy recovery (waste-to-energy or WTE). Out of the ~250 million tons of waste produced each year in the US, approximately 140 million tons is landfilled, 80 million tons is recycled, and 30 million tons is incinerated for energy. This alternative to traditional waste management (“Waste-to-Energy”) is gaining traction, but remains less than sustainable: The ash generated as a result of incineration can be dangerous to handle and expensive to dispose of. Often, the ash ends up in landfills.
Garg Group has recently been awarded seed funding from the Institute of Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) at the University of Illinois to explore the use of these ashes as building materials in construction. Prof. Garg in collaboration with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center will be utilizing this funding to seek external grants.
We are excited to venture into this important and critical field of waste management.
Garg group welcomes the first set of graduate students! Pratyush and Krishna joined the group in Fall 2019. Pablo and Vikram joined us in Spring 2020. Together, we’re working towards our common objective of building a better and sustainable world.
Currently, we’re looking forward to add more team members. Multiple positions for grad students for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 are currently open. If you’re interested in joining us, apply online.
Prof. Garg was recently invited to the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile to give a lecture on his research on alkali-activated materials. This visit and lecture were organized at the Department of Engineering and Construction Management.
Part of this visit also included a tour of some of the unique architecture that is present in Santiago, Chile. These structures are particularly impressive not just because of their unique material choice but also that they are built to survive regular seismic activity.
(Templo Bahá’í de Sudamérica)
A new publication titled “Nanoscale Ordering and Depolymerization of Calcium Silicate Hydrates in the Presence of Alkalis” was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C in September 2019.
Sustainable cements like alkali-activated materials often contain non-negligible amounts of alkalis (Na or K) which significantly influence the resulting material’s performance. However, the precise role of these alkalis is not fully understood. In this publication, using a combination of X-ray PDF and NMR, we present evidence on the silicate polymerization and the structure of the CNASH gel. Additionally, we also report novel data on the long-range atomic ordering of a series of 45 synthetic gels.
The article can be accessed here.
Long term exposure to neutron radiation can lead to degradation of the concrete which is commonly employed in the structural elements of a nuclear power plant. Understanding and predicting this degradation, which is induced due to residual stresses and internal cracking, is the key to long term operation of the US nuclear fleet.
The group has recently obtained funding from the Department of Energy, Nuclear Energy University Program (DOE NEUP) for a three-year project to closely examine effects of neutron radiation on the microstructure of concrete specimens. The University of Illinois is leading this research project and will be working in close collaboration with the University of Tenessee at Knoxville, Oak Ridge National Lab, and KLA-Tencor. The project duration is from October 2019 to September 2022.
We are looking forward to exciting research in the world of radiation-induced damage.
(UC Innovation Center)