Center for Infrastructure Renewal

Overview of Services

Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR) is a 138,000 square-foot facility located on the RELLIS campus, with unique infrastructure lab facilities that integrate multidisciplinary research and workforce development to accelerate innovation into the public infrastructure sector. The CIR boasts several labs that focus on critical infrastructure sectors like roads and bridges, pipeline systems, materials and waste, advanced manufacturing, and the electrical grid.

Control Room Lab

• The CIR Control Room Lab is an innovative vision of a large-scale, seamlessly integrated Power System Control Center of the future, featuring an integrated training room and facilities that emulate end-to-end control systems.
• Research activities include control center of the future; big data, particularly integration framework of GIS systems, applications of precise timing provided by GPS system of satellites; synchrophasors and synchronized sampling technology for T&D applications and ;cyber-physical security with emphasis on interactions between different critical infrastructures.
• Capabilities are integrated training room and facilities emulating end-to-end control systems including substations and communication network and; ability to continuously monitor certain sites in various grids through actual or virtual substation equipment.
• Currently, faculty/researchers/consultants can make reservations for:
• Computers in control room
• Display systems in control room
• Training room (in combination with projector and computers)

Geotechnical and Unbound Materials Innovation Lab

• This lab allows researchers to investigate soils, stabilization, and rehabilitation techniques that can be implemented in both the short and long term.
• Develop expedited and improved design procedures, sustainable solutions for rapid pavement renewal and rehabilitation, and supporting construction specifications.
• Reduce cost of pavement renewal by as much as 50 percent.
• Reduce project delivery time and disruption to traffic.
• Expand understanding of materials and mixture properties and their relationships to pavement performance under traffic and environmental conditions.

National Corrosion and Materials Reliability Lab

• The National Corrosion and Materials Reliability Lab (NCMRL) is a leader in research and technology efforts for materials degradation and reliability.
• The lab main focus is the research and development within corrosion science and engineering.
• Through research, education and training, and the testing of materials, the lab provides material selection, mitigation strategies and lifetime prediction tools to industry.

Shield Lab for Infrastructure Protection

• The state-of-the-art Hypervelocity Impact Shield Lab for Infrastructure Protection is aimed at enabling unique high-rate materials characterization and multiscale numerical model development and implementation.
• A state-of-the-art two-stage light gas gun (2SLGG), capable of launching 2-10 mm diameter projectiles at velocities in the range of 2-8 km/s (4400-18,000 miles/hour), is the focal point of this lab. It will provide a test bed for the development and tailoring of novel layered structures comprised of polymers, composites, metals, ceramics, soft materials, gels and geomaterials to mitigate hypervelocity impacts.

Structural and Materials Testing Lab

• The Structural and Materials Testing Lab is one of the largest, best-equipped facilities of its kind in the country. The lab’s ability to perform both full-scale, but also component and material testing, sets it apart. Most institutions must rely on numeral research with small-scale testing; but the CIR allows researchers to go one step further and conduct research on structural elements and systems similar to those put into service.
• Unique aspects of research performed in the Structural and Materials Testing Laboratory includes: full-scale testing of bridge support components, such as bent caps and girders; railroad rail fatigue testing under combined axial tension and bending; large-scale burst testing of service-damaged petroleum line pipe; scaffold and shoring proof-testing; seismically resilient bridge columns with sliding-rocking segmental joints; damage-resistant bridge columns using novel polymeric materials in damage-prone locations; and seismic performance assessment of structures accounting for environmental conditions and aging effects.

Getting Started

For TAMU individuals:

• First-time users should click "Register" in upper right. 
• Returning users will click "Sign In".

For Non-TAMU individuals:

• BEFOREyou register, you must be assigned a Customer Number.  Please complete the Customer Information Form and contact Katie Bradshaw.

Location and hours of operation

Links and Resources

1. Center for Infrastructure Renewal
2. Smart Grid Center
3. Geotechnical and Unbound Materials Innovation Lab
4. National Corrosion and Materials Liability Lab
5. Hypervelocity Impact Lab
6. High Bay Structural and Materials Laboratory

Contacts

Map