Laboratorio Central de Estructuras y Materiales

The study on the dynamic behaviour of a footbridge on the N-232 in Logroño, aimed to know the comfort of pedestrians with respect to vibrations in this type of structures, was completed. A follow-up of the substructure state of the viaduct on the river Tajo in the N-V, province of Cáceres, also continued and the study of the cracking appeared in a building of the Ministry of Fomento began.

Also, in the same field of auscultation of structures, the auscultation and load test of the viaducts of Valmayor and Valdecaballeros, under the jurisdiction of the River Guadiana Water Authority, were made for the Directorate General of Hydraulic Works and Water Quality (DGHWWQ). Both viaducts are situated on the García de Sola reservoir, province of Badajoz, and the same operations carried out for the aforementioned viaducts of Castilblanco and Benazaire were also made here.

The works for the DGHWWQ -River Ebro Water Authority- on the follow-up and analysis of the data provided by the systems of concrete dams auscultation continued. The objective of the works is a pilot action on a selected group of dams in the river Ebro basin, where it is intended to improve and automate the management and analysis of the auscultation data. The dams of El Grado, Mediano and Yesa were under study.

The inspection and study of fabric bridges, included in the characterisation works of the Roman bridges in the Extremadura section of Vía de la Plata, for the Extremadura Government, was finished; this included, among other actions, the geometric definition, characterisation of materials, study of their hydraulic and hydrologic situation, location of possible quarries to be used in the repairs and, when necessary, the structural analysis. Studies on the following bridges were specifically carried out in the year 2001: river Guadiana, in Mérida, Hornacinos stream, in Abadía, Santiago stream, in Cáceres, Jerte river, in Galisteo, Albarregas stream, in Mérida, Aljucén and Ambroz rivers, in Hervás (Cáceres), having completed the studies in a total of 12 bridges.

The manufacturing and mounting control of water supply pipes, some of reinforced concrete with plate liner and others of reinforced steel, destined to several arteries of the River Tajo Water Authority, was finished.

The programme of dynamic tests was focussed on fatigue and impact tests, using the seismic simulator with 6 degrees of freedom, for diverse industrial equipment (communication units, electrohydraulic motors, air conditioning units, power feeders, etc) destined to various railways (subways of Madrid, Bilbao and New York, Talgo, Vancouver, etc).

In European programmes, the participation in the project BRIME, to establish the basis of an European system for bridge management, came to an end. Participation in the Cost Action 345 on evaluation of road structures ( bridges, tunnels and walls) continued.

The preparation for the Directorate General of Environmental Quality and Evaluation of the Ministry of Environment of a guidebook on the use of waste materials in construction and public works, made in collaboration with other Centres of CEDEX, was finished. A theoretical-experimental study on the use of recycled aggregates in concrete commenced.

Studies for the implementation of new methods to determine the potential reactivity of the Silos dolomite opposite to alkaline solutions, based on the use of X ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, are under way. These studies, made in collaboration with the Polytechnical High School of the University of Burgos, are for the Castilla and León Local Government.

Besides the studies mentioned above, routine tests for the certification of prepared concrete (mark N) were made. As for metallic materials used in construction, tests for the homologation or certification (mark N) of active and passive reinforcements, corrugated wire for electrowelded meshes, supports and pillars for public lighting, steel pipes and profiles, copper pipes for thermo-hydrosanitary use, steel profiles and plates, aluminium profiles and certification of galvanized barriers for roads continued. The works corresponding to the agreement subscribed with Iron and Steel Quality to make contrast tests on corrugated welding bars of special ductility were initiated.

In certification tests to obtain the mark N of AENOR for other construction products, the following ought to be mentioned: ceramic sanitary sets, thermal insulating materials, acoustic insulating materials, windows, anodizing materials, concrete, ceramic materials, polystyrene vaults, granite and lime and concrete flagstones. Also, for other quality marks, tests were made on aluminised lacquer (international mark QUALICOAT) and double glazing elements (mark INCE).

With regard to the mark N, the Laboratorio Central obtained in the year 2001 the ENAC accreditation to carry out certification tests of metallic barriers for vehicles containment and renewed the accreditation for aluminised lacquer and thermal insulating products. Processes of accreditation to carry out tests on steel products for construction were also requested, including active and passive armours and metallic profiles. In short, in tests subjected to tariffs, 1400 test procedures were made. The extraordinary increase in this type of tests with respect to previous years originates in the incorporation to the Laboratorio Central of the former Laboratory of the Directorate General of Housing, Architecture and Town Planning (the old Central Laboratory of the INCE), now called Building Laboratory.

The drawing up of some specifications for the ARI to carry out load tests in bridges of high velocity lines continued.

Both in structural matters and materials, active participation in numerous standard Committees, Spanish and European, continued, including collaboration with several Interministerial Commissions on construction materials.

The equipment of the Laboratory was enriched by the incorporation of some new equipment and installations, among them the Laboratory of Photometry, that will make possible a better determination of the optical properties of retroreflective materials used in road signalling and safety equipment. In the quality control of road pavement signalling, a system for the dynamic measurement of its optical properties was also purchased (Ecodyn). Finally, a new automatic station for data collection in the auscultation of structures was implemented, as well as spinning and crack behaviour transducers.

Monographic article

Building Laboratory

BACKGROUND

The Building Laboratory, nowadays integrated as an Area in the Laboratorio Central de Estructuras y Materiales of CEDEX, is the final result of a long story of more than fifty years, along which very diverse activities have been developed that, to a larger or lesser extent, were related with the organisations from which the Laboratory functionally depended. The object of this article is the description of these activities.

Under the aforementioned Decree, the Centre changes its name to Experimental Centre of Architecture, its scope being the research of materials and systems or construction procedures and its rational use in building, as well as the dissemination of the knowledge on materials and construction elements and their application, everything through a Laboratory of Tests and Analysis, whose creation was determined by the ministerial Order of 10 April of the following year (Official Gazette of 19 April 1943), that also includes competence to carry out the tests and analysis stipulated by the sets of specifications of the corresponding works or by the facultative direction in buildings promoted by organisations of the Administration.

With the creation of the Ministry of Housing in 1957, the Centre and its Laboratory are integrated in the new Department and two years later, by Decree of 23 September (Official Gazette of 26 September 1959) takes the name of EXCO (Permanent Exhibition of Information on Construction), ascribed as Autonomous Organisation to the Directorate General of Economy and Construction Technique that, in the year 1962, joins the Directorate General of Architecture, Economy and Construction Technique.

The Laboratory, that was functioning as an annex to the Laboratory of the High Technical School of Architecture, built its own installations, in premises conceded by the own School in the low floor of its north wing, with a surface of 2000 sq m; a basement was also built where the first chambers for the testing of acoustic insulation of walls to aerial noise, thermal insulating tests, scale models of experimental houses, etc were installed, besides the traditional tests of concrete, cement, aggregates, steel, ceramic, rocky materials, etc.

The project of the network of INCE laboratories, one of the most ambitious for its reach and with a direct involvement of the laboratory in Madrid, intended to provide each province with a laboratory to offer the Building Sector the necessary means to carry out with more easiness and efficiency the control of concrete, its constituent materials and the traditional ones: bricks, tiles, pavements, etc, near the building site.

The undertaking to constitute this network of laboratories comes from 1972, although in 1971 there were already three laboratories (Barcelona, Burgos and Oviedo), taking advantage of some constructions of the Ministry that were handed over to that end.

These Quality Marks came to light with the idea of facilitate a help to the Works Management when receiving the materials. The operating Marks were: thermal insulating materials (all types); double glazing, bricks and ceramic tiles; bitumen and asphalt netting (in collaboration with the Central Laboratory of CEDEX); prepared concrete, etc.

All these Marks have passed at present to AENOR, adopting the figure of Mark AENOR, in agreement with the UNE standards.

Finally, the Royal Decree 1654/1985 of 3 July (Official Gazette of 17 September) eliminates INCE as an Autonomous Organisation. Its functions are assumed by the Directorate General of Architecture and Building and, with them, those of the Laboratory of Madrid, moved to a new location in Julián Camarillo 30 St., in a building of new construction, three floors and a total built area of 5466 sq m.

In short, the present activity of the Building Laboratory is harmoniously complemented with the activities on testing of materials that were already carried out by the Laboratorio Central of CEDEX, increasing in a substantial way the participation of the Organisation in the field of construction materials.