Friday, October 3, 2025
Media contact: Kristi Wheeler | Communication coordinator | 405-744-5831 | kristi.wheeler@okstate.edu
Dr. Tyler Ley is a self -described concrete freak. His passion for the finer concrete technologies in life brought him 120,000 YouTube subscribers.
Ley, Regenten Professor and Cooper W&W Chairman at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has made a name for itself with his enthusiastic and informative videos.
This enthusiasm also appears in his research and deals with numerous topics in connection with concrete composition and use.
The students benefit from this world-class enthusiasm and gain experience in the robust world of concrete technology.
Airport challenges
Ley and his research team carried out several projects financed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Two current projects concentrated on a complex concrete challenge: airport travels.
The landingways at airports play a crucial role in the continued flight of aircraft. Problems that occur from the concrete of below -average concrete can have an adverse effect on aircraft, which leads to millions of dollars of damage.
These projects examined the optimal mix for concrete streets. The first focused on the ideal mixture and the ideal design and the development of tools for evaluating materials, so that the concrete is successfully paved.
The second project concentrated on how the concrete is paved and how this process affects the runway quality.
Dr. Mohammad Jobaer Uddin, Postdoktorand, and Sara Sadat Tayebi, Ph.D. Student were the main students of the project. They worked together with students for civil engineering and electrical engineering and electrical engineering that developed sensors to test concrete mixtures.
Landstrags are a challenge for repair, especially at an active airport. This increases the importance of quality tests and monitoring to ensure the quality and maintenance of the runway.
It is estimated that 22.7 billion US dollars for aircraft and runway repair are issued due to foreign objects, which are often made of loose materials that are sucked into an engine, which is caused to cause great damage.
Tools were developed, such as B. monitoring the vibrations of devices and the smoothing of the surface to monitor the paving stones in real time.
“The FAA recognizes the challenges of inconsistent specific delivery during the airfield lane construction, especially in active airfield environments,” said Uddin. “However, you have not set any specific requirements for paving if concrete properties change. Decisions about whether the persecution of the tension should slow or stop are left to the discretion of the contractor.”
Break the ice
Ley's research on complex specific problems included the development of a concrete mix to withstand the constant freezing and thawing cycles of climate zones with extreme cold.
These cycles can have a negative impact on streets and bridges, as water penetrates cracks and extends when freezing. This means that existing cracks as well as new cracks and potholes form.
This project aimed to use their research to give recommendations for specifications for roads and bridges to prevent freezing road work.
The Ley student team consisted of autumn Burns, a research assistant of graduated and Uddin.
The team created a special concrete mix with a method called Air training and the concrete is created with several tiny blisters. These blisters allow the ice room to expand, which means that the integrity of the concrete remains intact.
These stressful blisters are like a pressure relief valve on a full water bottle in the freezer. When the bottle is filled, it is broken, but when a pressure relief valve is added, the pressure will not cause the bottle to break.
“The same idea applies to concrete,” said Burns. “In cold climates, the water expands and causes cracks. To prevent this, people add special additives to the concrete, while mixing to add more blisters so that the water can expand without causing damage.”
The Ley team examined these mixtures through laboratory tests and monitored their performance over time to ensure that they fulfilled the standards determined by the South Dakota Ministry of Transport, which was financed by the project.
“Each mixture was tested for temperature, burglary, unit weight, air content and SAM number (for testing the air -void system in fresh concrete) during the entire test process,” said Burns. “In addition, mix samples were hardened to measure the distance in the concrete, as well as a freez tau resistance and the strength tests to assess the long-term duration.”
Through Ley's passionate way of thinking, the pupils gain experience that the communities in Oklahoma and beyond a great contribution to supporting the communities in Oklahoma.
Photos: Tanner Holubar
History of: Tanner Holubar | Impact magazine