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Author: Alejandra Pulido-Guzman-LETHBRIDGE HERALD, November 11, 2021.

Lethbridge Herald apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Although concrete was used in an early form by the Romans as early as 300 BC, there is still a problem that remains unsolved until today. In concrete, cracking has been and remains one of the biggest challenges. This is a problem that a team of former Lethbridge College civil engineering and technology students hope to solve. Their attempt to replace steel with polypropylene fibers caught the attention of the Alberta Association of Science and Engineering Professionals (ASET). Lane Roggensack, Robert Beerda and Brett Porter were nominated as one of the seven finalists for the Capstone Project of the Year Award . This year, the committee decided that only seven projects should be considered as finalists. "The Lethbridge College team faced a difficult task. They were concerned about viewing the concrete and how to prevent it from cracking and how to strengthen it. They believed that no one had done enough before adding polypropylene fiber to the concrete. The experiment to determine whether this can prevent the cracking and degradation that lead to the aging of the steel, and its second stage, it can actually use polypropylene fiber instead of the steel. Therefore, conducting such a research is a difficult task,” ASET chief Executive Officer Barry Cavanaugh said. Cavanaugh added that it is very important for him and the organization to recognize colleges and polytechnics and teachers participating in such high-quality projects. "Once we were nominated, we were really excited. Roggensack said: "We have invested a lot of effort, a lot of effort and a lot of time in this project, so we are very happy to see that we have been rewarded for this nomination. "Roggensack added that they got a lot of opinions from the faculty and staff around Lethbridge College, which inspired them. "They are really there to inspire you, they are sincere, and they work hard to make you play every day. The best level, so when you do these things, especially when you represent schools and competitions like this," said Logensack. Doug May, a civil engineering technical lecturer at Lethbridge College, said that it’s very worthwhile to be recognized "Seeing students who have spent two or three years with you, they have participated in a project, and the skills they have developed can make them reach a level that is recognized at the provincial or national level, see," May said. May added Said, he always showed the ASET website to the students at the beginning and said: "Look, you have some big shoes to fill, because the people following you, this is where they are, now you have to go a little further... …There is no pressure, but this is what we expect of you. "The department and others from around the college were invited to take a look at the suggestions made by the students, including the Advanced Research Department CARIE. "This is a creative project, and we have more projects, so some very interesting things, May said. In construction, steel bars are usually added to concrete to increase tensile strength. However, it cannot increase the strength of the exposed edges of the concrete. As a result, these edges can form cracks that allow water to seep into the concrete and corrode the steel bars. Â Lane Roggensack and his team created samples of cylinders and beams to compare the compressive and tensile strengths of polypropylene fiber-containing concrete and steel-reinforced concrete. The performance of polypropylene fiber cylinders is better than that of beams because of the more cracks formed inside them. Small, less intrusive, keeping the cylinder intact. The beam with the optical fiber splits in two-the result is unexpected. It turns out that the concrete beam sample with steel reinforcement is stronger than the concrete beam sample containing the fiber. Â They also found that the addition of fiber makes the workability of concrete lower than that of ordinary concrete. The slump of fiber-containing concrete is 16 times lower than the normal slump. The slump test measures the consistency of fresh concrete before it sets to ensure The uniformity of concrete with different loads under various conditions. It can be used as an indicator of incorrect mixing batches. Finally, the former team determined that only polypropylene fiber is not enough to increase the tensile strength of concrete and therefore cannot replace steel bars. But According to Logansack, these findings did not prevent them from being nominated by ASET, which made them very happy.

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