Planes, Concrete and Automobiles: CEAT professor's research fixes runways and icy roads

Planes, Concrete and Automobiles: CEAT professor's research fixes runways and icy roads

Friday, October 3, 2025

Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-5831 | [email protected]

Dr. Tyler Ley is a self-described concrete freak. His passion for the finer concrete technologies in life has earned him 120,000 YouTube subscribers.

Ley, Regents Professor and Cooper W&W Chair in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has made a name for himself with his enthusiastic and informative videos.

This enthusiasm also shines through in his research, tackling numerous topics related to concrete composition and use.

Students benefit from this world-class enthusiasm, gaining experience in the robust world of concrete engineering.

Airport challenges

Ley and his research team have undertaken multiple projects funded by the Federal Aviation Administration. Two recent projects focused on a complex concrete challenge: airport runways.

Runways at airports play a crucial role in the continued flight of aircraft. Problems arising from subpar concrete can be detrimental to aircraft, causing millions of dollars in damage.

These projects studied the optimal mixture for concrete runways. The first focused on the ideal mixture and design, as well as developing tools to evaluate materials so that the concrete is paved successfully.

The second project focused on how the concrete is paved and how that process affects the runway quality.

Dr. Mohammad Jobaer Uddin, a postdoctoral researcher, and Sara Sadat Tayebi, a Ph.D. student, were the lead students on the project. They worked alongside undergraduate civil engineering and electrical engineering students who developed sensors to test concrete mixtures.

Shown are concrete mixtures that are an attempt to create non-vinsol air-entraining concrete mixtures to withstand freezing climates.

Runways are a challenge to repair, particularly at an active airport. This raises the importance of quality control testing and monitoring to ensure runway quality and maintenance.

It is estimated that $22.7 billion is spent on aircraft and runway repair due to foreign object debris, which often consist of loose materials that get sucked into an engine, causing major damage.

Tools were developed, such as monitoring vibration from equipment and the smoothness of the surface being laid, to monitor paving runways in real-time.

"The FAA recognizes the challenges of inconsistent concrete delivery during airfield pavement construction, especially in active airfield environments," Uddin said. "However, they have not set specific requirements for paver operation when concrete properties change. Decisions about whether to slow down or stop the paver during delivery delays are left to the contractor's discretion."

Breaking the Ice

Ley's research on complex concrete issues included developing a concrete mixture to withstand the constant freezing and thawing cycles of climates with extreme cold.

These cycles can have a detrimental effect on roadways and bridges, as water seeps into cracks and expands as it freezes. This causes existing cracks to expand as well as new cracks and potholes to form.

This project aimed to use their research to make recommendations for specifications for roads and bridges to prevent freeze-related roadwork.

Two CIVE students tend to concrete mixtures for later study as part of an effort to create concrete mixtures that can withstand freezing climates.

Ley's student team consisted of Autumn Burns, a graduate research assistant, and Uddin.

The team created a special concrete blend with a method known as air-entraining, which creates concrete that has several tiny bubbles throughout. These bubbles allow the ice room to expand, therefore keeping the integrity of the concrete intact.

These stress-relieving bubbles are like putting a pressure relief valve on a full water bottle in the freezer. If the bottle is filled, it will shatter, but if a pressure relief valve is added, the pressure will not cause the bottle to break.

"This same idea applies to concrete," Burns said. "In cold climates, the water inside the concrete expands and causes cracks. To prevent this, people add special additives to the concrete while mixing to add more bubbles so the water can expand without causing damage."

Ley's team studied these mixtures through lab testing and monitored their performance over time to ensure they met the standards set forth by the South Dakota Department of Transportation, which funded the project.

"Each mix was tested for temperature, slump, unit weight, air content and SAM number (used to test the air void system in fresh concrete) throughout the testing process," Burns said. "Additionally, mix samples underwent hardened air void analysis to measure the spacing in the concrete, as well as freeze-thaw resistance and strength testing to assess long-term durability."

Through Ley's passionate mindset, students are gaining experience that will go a long way toward helping communities in Oklahoma and beyond.

Photos: Tanner Holubar

Story by: Tanner Holubar | IMPACT Magazine