KuzSTU Hosted the Grand Opening of the Laboratory for Testing Road-Building Materials

KuzSTU hosted the grand opening of the laboratory for testing road-building materials on the basis of the Construction Institute. The consequence of this large-scale event will be that students will be able to learn to work with professional equipment, practice on real production orders and even earn money!

We need such laboratories in the educational process, in the training of students of construction specialties. Thanks to this laboratory - they will know modern equipment, understand its features and learn to work with it, to undergo practical training at real enterprises, - said Andrei Pokatilov, Director of the Construction Institute. - Also, the laboratory opens up great prospects for us in the implementation of scientific-research work, such as research projects, grants, dissertations, young scientists of Kuzbass.

The scientific life of the Construction Institute will also get a new impetus. For Sergey Ivanov, Associate Professor of the Department of Highways and Urban Cadastre, the opening of the laboratory is a very significant event. He is engaged in scientific research in the direction of “Modification of organic binders by industrial wastes (rubber crumb obtained by processing of worn-out automobile tires and other rubber products) with subsequent obtaining of durable asphalt concrete mixtures and asphalt concrete on their basis”. The new laboratory equipment will allow not only to deepen the process of study, but also to conduct experiments that were previously unavailable.

The equipment will make it possible to implement the process of preparation of concentrated rubber suspensions with subsequent production of rubber-bitumen binder. Afterwards it will be possible to evaluate the obtained mixtures for the full range of physical and mechanical properties of both modified bitumen and asphalt concrete mixtures,” shared Sergey Ivanov, Associate Professor of the Department of Highways and Urban Cadastre.

The event was attended by Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Valentin Parmon, who outlined a number of popular research topics for his colleagues:

The issue is very important, particularly in terms of ecology, because the problem of tire recycling is relevant. At present, the Tomsk University is working out a technology for Tatarstan through the Siberian Branch – it is usually low-temperature embrittlement, then refinement so that adhesion is good.

The renovation and equipment of the road construction materials testing laboratory was financed by the funds allocated to the university within the framework of the Program of Social and Economic Development of Kuzbass until 2024. KuzGTU invested 2 billion rubles in the total modernization of the campus - the academic building and two dormitories of the university. Today, the laboratory is equipped to test all types of materials used in road construction: asphalt concrete mixtures, gravel, soil, concrete.