Fears Lab

Well, have you wondered how much longer the I-40 crosstown will hold up, I do, every time I go across it. [laugh] Or what might happen if you exceed the weight limit posted on all those state bridges Believe it or not, there is a whole science to how much something can hold before it breaks. Galen Culver went to one of the best labs in the country to see it happen. We walk on it, drive on it, construct buildings with it, About 2000 pounds right there, 2500 But Chris Ramseyer and other structural engineers here spend a great deal of time squeezing concrete until it crumbles We tend to build things and then we destroy them depending upon the type of concrete it might even explode 7000 psi It's always cool to break things, that's the fun of it. In the real world roadways, pillars, bridges... They're all under some stress. and over time they break down. 280,000 But at the University of Oklahoma Fears structural engineering lab Guys like Ramseyer study very carefully how those stresses work how decay works, and at what point exactly. 300,000 till something like a bridge span just...give way. [loud crashing] at ultimate which is the point you never even want to see a bridge go to... uh, we had compression failure of the top fiber of the concrete and that was that explosive disintigration He's one of the very few university professors who knows his way around a backhoe but Ramseyers team is also studying the effects of frost heave and moisture on housing foundations. He bored these and now he's testing just exactly how much it takes to pull them back up. We build it, then we break it, take it to its limits, then study it during it's failure. testing limits and then surpassing them, researchers from all over the world come in here. set up their instruments and then put big things under great stress. by fully understanding what happens come better construction techniques, better materials, plus the process is also really cool to watch. In norman Galen Culver News Channel 4, is this a great state or what? Maybe a guy thing but that is cool! The Fears lab at the University of Oklahoma is special for another reason The facility was built entirely from private donations Last year close to $1,000,000 worth research went through that building.