Concrete advances in Greenwich

The UK building industry is set to become faster and more efficient thanks to a new rig to assist with the design and testing of concrete ground slabs being constructed at the

.

The test facility, which Greenwich said is probably the largest of its type in Europe, will be capable of applying concentrated loads of up to 600 Kilo-Newtons – the equivalent of a dozen elephants – on concrete ground slabs 6 metres wide and 12 metres long.

“The rig will be a valuable resource for the construction industry, enabling comparisons to be made of the performance of different design approaches using conventional steel fabric, and modern replacements such as steel and synthetic fibres,” says Ian Cakebread, from the School of Engineering.

Construction of the

of

test rig is expected to start in the next few weeks and, along with the recently opened Wolfson Bulk Solids Research Centre, completes a major redevelopment of engineering laboratory facilities at the

at Medway campus.

The concrete testing project, overseen by Visiting Professor Derrick Beckett, has attracted more than £44,000 of funding from the government’s Scientific Research Infrastructure Fund.