“Concrete of the Next Quarter Century - Still what it’s all cracked up to be”

Quality concrete requires well-defined and accepted properties, such as workability, volume stability, strength, and durability. Dr. Qiao and Mr. Copeland with WJE will discuss two issues related to potential cracking of concrete – dimensional stability (shrinkage and thermal) and long term durability (alkali aggregate reactions). 

Dr. Chunyu “Joe” Qiao is an Associate Principal and Petrographer at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (WJE). He is an associate member of ACI Committees 201 (Concrete Durability) and 365 (Service Life Prediction). He is the Past President of the Central Texas ACI Chapter and is a junior editorial board member for Journal of Infrastructure Preservation and Resilience. Dr. Qiao received his PhD from University of Science and Technology Beijing, China. He was a visiting scholar at Purdue University from 2013 to 2015 and a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University from 2016 to 2018. He has consulted on numerous materials problems, integrating petrographic, chemical, and electrical techniques. His experience covers a wide range of topics, including concrete quality control, surface defects, durability, early-age shrinkage, supplemental cementitious materials, chemical admixtures, and service life modeling.

Mr. Kevin Copeland, Senior Associate at WJE, is a concrete materials engineer with nearly 30 years of laboratory and field experience. Mr. Copeland previously served as President for the San Antonio and Central Texas Chapters of ACI and currently serves as voting member of ASTM C09.23 Chemical Admixtures. Mr. Copeland received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his Master of Engineering (Civil) from Texas A&M University. He is certified as an NRMCA Level 4 Concrete Technologist and ACI, Concrete Quality Technical Manager. Mr. Copeland oversees the WJE Austin Laboratory and has conducted hundreds of concrete shrinkage and mortar/concrete ASR tests.