Our Research


The future
is today

Professor Mirian Velay-Lizancos is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University, Civil Engineering Department. She is the leader of Velay Research Group. Our goal is to reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to stopping Climate Change by creating sustainable high-performance construction materials to preserve the world and new materials for the present and the future. We are doing research to unveil the mechanisms that drive the material's performance at micro- and macro- scales. A deep understanding of these mechanisms helps us to create more environmentally sustainable materials for the new age.

Our philosophy to create the future sustainable construction materials is based on a holistic approach that includes: (i) valorization of wastes and reduction of the use of natural resources, (ii) enhancement of durability to reduce reparations and to extend the service life, and (iii) creating materials with beneficial, proactive effects during service life, such as concrete with the ability to sequestrate CO2 in an accelerated way. Our primary research areas are high-performance, sustainable materials, forensic engineering, early age and durability of sustainable concrete, structural behavior of composite materials, and self-healing structures.

.

News





- Congrats to the Ph.D. students of Velay Research Group, Carlos Moro and Vito Francioso! They received the ACPA Concrete Pavement and Materials Science Scholarship! Very well deserved! Very smart, professional, hard-worker, honest, respectful and positive students! I am very proud of you guys!




- Very happy to announce that we have a new Research Project funded by INDOT! We will study how nanoparticles can help to improve the durability of our concrete pavements!




- Professor Velay was recognized as one of the "Outstanding Engineering Teachers" of the College of Engineering at Purdue University. She received a score of 4.9/5 in the teaching evaluation of her graduate course on properties, characterization, behavior, mix proportioning, non-destructive evaluation and production of plain concretes and special concretes.




- Our paper "The effect of recycled aggregates on the accuracy of the maturity method on vibrated and self-compacting concretes" was published in Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering - Elsevier (impact factor:2.763), Q1 category in "Mechanical Engineering" & "Civil and structural Engineering". Free access until January 26, 2019 clicking on this link: {Link}




- Our paper "Concrete with fine and coarse recycled aggregates: E-modulus evolution, compressive strength and non-destructive testing at early ages" was published in Construction and Building Materials (impact factor:3.485). Free access until December 19, 2018 clicking on this link: {Link}



- Prof. Velay had the great honor to meet Tom Hughes at UT Austin. He is a living legend of science and engineering. Among many other honors, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He is one of the fathers of finite elements and the creator of Isogeometric analysis. Very special day, and very proud of meeting him in person.


- Our paper "Effect of fine and coarse recycled concrete aggregate on the mechanical behavior of precast reinforced beams: comparison of FE simulations, theoretical, and experimental results on real scale beams" was published in Construction and Building Materials (impact factor:3.485). Free access until December 09, 2018 clicking on this link: {Link}

- We had Irving materials Inc (imi) visit us in our course CE530 at Purdue University. Amazing lecture on production of concrete and quality control from the industry point of view. Thank you Chad Clark, Andrew Mercker and Don Pampel, thank you Iriving materials! Excellent lecture, very interesting and much fun! The students love to see the industry perspective and you made it possible!

- Our paper "Combining fine and coarse recycled aggregates in concrete mixtures: an experimental study on the evolution of the E-modulus and its relationship with compressive strength and non-destructive testing" was acepted in CBM! (impact factor:3.485)

- Congratulations to our Undergraduate Researcher Molly Schrager to be awarded with the Award of Excellence Top Research Poster at 2018 SURF Research Symposium!

- Prof. Velay invited to give a seminar at University of California San Diego. {Link} .

- Contratulations to our Undergraduate Researcher Alice Ikuru! She got an Office of Undergraduate Research Scholarship (OUR scholarship).This scholarship recognizes undergraduate student engagement in original research under the guidance of a Purdue faculty.

- Our Undergraduate Researcher Molly Schrager recieved the American Concrete Pavement Association (APCA) fellowship 2018. Amazing Molly, congrats!

- Vito Francioso and Carlos Moro joined our research group as PhD students! Welcome!!! We are very happy to have you as part of our team.