26 Jun 2025

Preliminary Study for Rapid Ground Stabilization

Abstract: The Army has a need to rapidly repair heavily damaged low-volume roads. This report describes the literature review, laboratory study, and preliminary technology evaluation for potential rapid road rehabilitation materials and equipment. The objective was to identify and evaluate equipment, materials, and techniques for rapid road repair. This phase of the study focuses on rapid stabilizers that, when added to native soil, could improve bearing capacity. Lightweight equipment and attachments were assessed for their ability to effectively excavate and place geomaterials. Several commercial soil stabilizers were identified that could meet strength requirements. Equipment attachments for a compact track loader were deemed most suitable for executing rapid repairs.

25 Jun 2025

Evaluating the Influence of Flexural Strength on Rigid Pavement Performance Under Simulated Aircraft Traffic

Abstract: A full-scale airfield pavement test section was constructed and trafficked by ERDC to investigate the impact of substandard flexural strength portland cement concrete on pavement structural support requirements under simulated aircraft loading conditions. The substandard pavements were representative of ones encountered in remote locations where there may be a lack of locally available competent materials, standard construction equipment, or a skilled labor force. The test section consisted of two PCC surface thicknesses constructed with a standard airfield flexural strength PCC mixture and a low flexural strength PCC mixture and a dowelled and non-dowelled joint. The test items were trafficked with a dual-wheel P-8 aircraft test gear mounted on a heavy-vehicle simulator. The outcomes of the tests showed a significant reduction in PCC pavement cracking performance resulting from the reduction in flexural strength. Instrumentation response data were analyzed to corroborate observed surface cracking. The field data were compared to DoD pavement design and evaluation procedures, and it found current procedures underpredicted observed performance in excess of 90 percent. These estimations may be overly conservative and may exceed a level of conservatism appropriate in a remote environment. The observed conservatism was attributed to simplifying assumptions and empirical correlations made in early development.

24 Jun 2025

A Field Sampling and Analysis Protocol for Assessing Occupational Exposure and Risk from Military Munition Storage Magazines

Abstract: An occupational health study was conducted inside reinforced-concrete earth-covered munitions storage magazines at Fort Wingate Depot Activity. HEPA vacuuming of bulk dust and wipe sample verification post-vacuuming was used. In Phase 1, no explosives detections exceeded site-specific screening criteria. In Phase 2, no exceedances were noted for detected explosives with criterion. Using structure/ reactivity characteristics within the explosives category, surrogates were assigned to the six explosives without occupational health screening criteria. Based upon structural similarities within the analysis category, assignments of surrogates to explosives without criteria did not adversely impact the conclusions. In Phase 1, lead was detected in bulk dust in all igloos, and all exceeded the applicable criterion for commercial/industrial workers. In Phase 2, all lead detections in wipe samples were below the wipe screening criteria. Results indicated the ECM interiors posed no unacceptable dermal occupational risk for explosives or lead residues following bulk dust removal. HEPA filter vacuuming of interior bulk dust in ECMs at FWDA reduced occupational risk/hazard for exposure via inhalation and dermal contact under worst-case exposure conditions. Both phases of sampling are widely applicable, provided the site-specific assumptions made for this study are evaluated for suitability to another specific application and adjusted if needed.

24 Jun 2025

Graphene-Coated Sand for Enhanced Water Reuse: Impact on Water Quality and Chemicals of Emerging Concern

Abstract: This paper investigates the potential of graphene-coated sand as an advanced filtration medium for improving water quality and mitigating chemicals of emerging concern in treated municipal wastewater, aiming to enhance water reuse. The study utilizes three types of sand coated with graphene to assess the impact of surface morphology, particle shape, and chemical composition on coating and filtration efficiency. Additionally, sand coated with graphene and activated graphene coated sand were both tested to understand the effect of coating and activation on the filtration process. The materials were characterized using digital microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The material’s efficiency in removing turbidity, nutrients, chemical oxygen demand, bacteria, and specific CECs was studied. Our findings indicate that GCS significantly improves water quality parameters, with notable efficiency in removing turbidity, COD, and bacterial contaminants. The study also highlights the material’s capacity to remove challenging CECs like Sulfamethoxazole and Diphenhydramine, showcasing its potential as a sustainable solution for water reuse applications. This research contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive evaluation of GCS in water treatment, suggesting its potential for removing CECs from treated municipal wastewater.

18 Jun 2025

Evaluation of Commercial Cementitious Rapid-Setting Materials and Testing Protocol for Repairing Airfield Spalls

Abstract: The Pavement Repair Material Certification Program assists the US Air Force Civil Engineer Center by executing independent testing on select commercial cementitious proprietary products to repair partial-depth spalls in airfield concrete pavements. The selection of cementitious rapid-setting repair products can be difficult for military personnel considering the number of commercially available proprietary products. Too often, many product manufacturers highlight product strengths while masking undesirable properties. The purpose of this research was to evaluate selected commercially manufactured cementitious products through a series of laboratory testing protocols. These protocols were established to aid airfield managers and repair teams in selecting optimal airfield pavement spall repair materials by maintaining a database of approved products. Under the program, approximately four to six repair products are tested annually. This report presents the laboratory test methods and results of cementitious rapid-setting repair products tested at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center from 2018 to 2022. The report also evaluates the overall test methods for assessing a material’s suitability for airfield spall repairs. Using the laboratory evaluation, eight products were identified as compatible for partial-depth airfield pavement concrete spall repairs.

16 Jun 2025

Evaluation of Tekcrete Fast for Airfield Pavement Repairs

Abstract: Tekcrete Fast is a deployable, high-strength cementitious product with rapid bonding force that was initially developed to provide stability for structures damaged by seismic activity and explosives. The product was evaluated by researchers at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center for its ability to execute necessary force projection and resilient infrastructure repairs for the US military without major negative impacts to the mission. Full-scale testing of the rapidly emplaced calcium-sulfoaluminate (CSA) concrete product was completed to identify the sustainability and strength of the material with military aircraft traffic. The CSA concrete mixture was designed for dry-mix shotcrete applications and adapted to be placed conventionally (cast-in-place) using a portable skid steer concrete mixer. This report presents a technical evaluation of the field performance of full-depth concrete repairs conducted using the cast-in-place Tekcrete Fast material in a portable concrete mixer. Passes-to-failure rates for each repair were determined using an F-15E load cart. Results indicated that Tekcrete Fast meets the military’s criteria for being an expedient pavement repair solution.

13 Jun 2025

Enhanced Route Reconnaissance—Generation 1

Abstract: The movement of soldiers and materiel across battlespace is critical to a successful military operation. Knowledge of the road network condition ensures safe and successful vehicle maneuver. This research focused on remote assessment of poor-quality paved road networks for vehicle maneuver using data products derived from three-dimensional point clouds. Point clouds were generated from lidar sensors deployed from ground and airborne platforms to enable engineering analysis of the pavement surface. A series of algorithms developed to extract roughness, grade, radius of curvature, and width along the road network ensured storage of information for graphical display. A vehicle speed lookup table was calculated by conducting computer simulations using the NATO Reference Mobility Model over a range of road parameters. The lookup table enabled determination of the maximum allowable speed for a given vehicle type associated with the extracted road parameters. A graphical interface, developed for displaying the percentage speed reduction as either red, amber, or green squares along the road network, provided visual assessments of road condition. This report summarizes developing a software suite to calculate and visualize speed reduction over a road network as a function of route geometry, condition, and vehicle type. The interface developed can aid in critical logistical decisions that influence the success of military maneuver operations.

12 Jun 2025

Evaluation of Commercial Cementitious Rapid-Setting Materials and Testing Protocol for Repairing Airfield Spalls: Material Testing Results for 2023 and 2024

Abstract: The Pavement Repair Material Certification Program assists the US Air Force Civil Engineer Center by executing independent testing on select proprietary commercial cementitious products used to repair partial-depth spalls in airfield concrete pavements. Selecting cementitious rapid-setting repair products can be difficult for military personnel because of the high number of commercially available products. Too often, product manufacturers highlight product strengths while masking undesirable properties. The purpose of this research was to evaluate selected commercially manufactured cementitious products through a series of laboratory testing protocols. These protocols were established to aid airfield managers and repair teams in selecting optimal airfield pavement spall repair materials by maintaining a database of permitted products. Under the program, approximately four to six repair products are tested annually. This report presents the laboratory test methods and results for cementitious rapid-setting repair products tested at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in 2023 and 2024. These test methods and results were evaluated for their ability to assess a material’s suitability for airfield spall repairs. No products were identified as compatible with partial-depth airfield pavement concrete spall repairs.

9 Jun 2025

KANICE: Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks with Interactive Convolutional Elements

Abstract: We introduce KANICE, a novel neural architecture that com-bines Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) with Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) principles. KANICE integrates Interactive Convolutional Blocks (ICBs) and KAN linear layers into a CNN framework. This leverages KANs’ universal approximation capabilities and ICBs’ adaptive feature learning. KANICE captures complex, non-linear data relationships while enabling dynamic, context-dependent feature extraction based on the Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem. We evaluated KANICE on four datasets: MNIST, Fashion-MNIST, EMNIST, and SVHN, comparing it against standard CNNs, CNN-KAN hybrids, and ICB variants. KANICE consistently outperformed baseline models, achieving 99.35% accuracy on MNIST and 90.05% on the SVHN dataset. Furthermore, we introduce KANICE-mini, a compact variant designed for efficiency. A comprehensive ablation study demonstrates that KANICE-mini achieves comparable performance to KANICE with significantly fewer parameters. KANICE-mini reached 90.00% accuracy on SVHN with 2,337,828 parameters, compared to KAN-ICE’s 25,432,000. This study highlights the potential of KAN-based architectures in balancing performance and computational efficiency in image classification tasks. Our work contributes to research in adaptive neural networks, integrates mathematical theorems into deep learning architectures, and explores the trade-offs between model complexity and performance, advancing computer vision and pattern recognition. The source code for this paper is publicly accessible through our GitHub repository (https://github.com/m-ferdaus/kanice).

27 May 2025

Naval Expeditionary Runway Construction Criteria: Evaluation of Reduced Flexural Strength Portland Cement Concrete under P-8 Traffic

Abstract: A full-scale airfield pavement test section was constructed and trafficked by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to investigate the impact of substandard flexural strength portland cement concrete (PCC) on the pavement structural support requirements for the P-8 aircraft. The substandard pavements were representative of those that may be encountered in remote locations where there may be a lack of locally available competent materials, standard construction equipment, or a skilled labor force. The test section consisted of two PCC surface thicknesses that closely matched those evaluated in previous studies utilizing standard-strength PCC. The test items were trafficked with a dual-wheel P-8 test gear on a heavy-vehicle simulator. The outcomes of the trafficking test showed a significant reduction in PCC pavement performance resulting from the reduction in flexural strength. Further, a comparison of observed performance to current pavement design and evaluation procedures suggested that current procedures may be overly conservative and may exceed a level of conservatism appropriate in a contingency environment.