Date Approved

3-10-2017

Embargo Period

3-10-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MS Civil Engineering

Department

Civil & Environmental Engineering

College

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering

Advisor

Sukumaran, Beena

Committee Member 1

Ramachandran, Ravi

Committee Member 2

Lim, Michael

Keywords

Chemical Composition, LIBS, Material Testing, Quality Control, Quantitative analysis, Spectrometer

Subject(s)

Road materials--Analysis; Spectroscopy

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract

The New Jersey Department of Transport (NJDOT) has a vested interest in the determination of the chemical composition and thereby the mineralogy of aggregates. Depending on the mineralogy of an aggregate sample, it may be inappropriate to use for construction and roadwork purposes. Current methods of determining the mineralogy of aggregates are costly in terms of time, money and convenience. As such, there is a desire for the development of an alternative and efficient method for aggregate mineralogical determination in the field.

The focus of this study is to develop a portable system for aggregate analysis in the field and compare the results with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) data provided by the NJDOT. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), which involves firing a laser pulse at a sample to determine its composition from light spectra emitted via a spectrometer and a custom program, was chosen to be the basis of the portable system. Along with system development, results were analyzed via Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR). The current analysis technique utilizes split-training and y-scaling to analyze spectra data and performs well for most samples.

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