Absorption Tests and Such

So last week Will and I spent a good 5 hours blow drying some of our aggregate!!

No joke, sadly. We needed to know the absorption rates of the icebreaker aggregate so we can finalize some mix designs and unfortunately the tests took way longer than we thought! Because of this I received a parking ticket from the lovely DPS. balls. The tests results are interesting! Our highest absorption rate is over 40% which is reaaallly high. We don't believe this will be a problem but we are still investigating.

We also tested the shotcrete gun once again. The gun is good to go. We have the air ratios right and it is applying wonderfully. A second concrete barrel will eventually be built so we can continuously be spreading on pour day.

This upcoming week we plan on pouring a bunch of test cylinders so we can pick a mix design before winter break! We are also doing a second test mold to improve our design techniques for our new fiberglass mold method. Everybody better be there!