Construction Material Testing Laboratory

Material Testing Laboratory is used for material related testing particularly for the concrete. The construction materials laboratory at IIT Palakkad has been developed to cater to both undergraduate teaching as well as advanced research, mostly related to building materials. All basic test facilities for concrete and concrete making materials are available, including separate assessment of different phases, starting from the basic Marsh cone and Mini-slump test for paste phase to the mechanical characterisation of the hardened concrete. The lab houses a servo-hydraulic compression/flexural testing system, for both static and low frequency cyclic tests on materials with one control unit serving three frames, having their maximum capacity ranging from 15 kN to 3000 kN. Another dedicated servo-control unit for displacement controlled testing, connected to a high stiffness flexural testing frame of 300 kN capacity, is also available to facilitate testing of strain softening materials. Both control units are expandable up to four frames. The system can be used for basic strength tests as well as advanced strain controlled tests with significant levels of accuracy owing to the range of capacities.