Development of New Materials/Coatings for Application in the Trnasportation Sector

2.1 Project Abstract The United States transportation infrastructure is critical to our nation's economy and way of life. Transportation structures such as bridges and tunnels are essential parts of this infrastructure and they are vulnerable to closure due to damage from high intensity fires. The objective of this project is to provide new technologies, new uses for existing technologies, and validate usage of existing technologies toward making our transportation structures less vulnerable to high intensity fires. The project will have three phases. Phase 1 is the focus of this proposal and its goal is to lay the ground work for Phases 2 and 3 by studying and reporting the impact of high intensity fires on transportation structures, surveying existing fire protection capabilities, identifying deficiencies or gaps in current protection methods, and identifying research that needs to be completed in Phase 2. During Phase 2, experimental tests will be conducted to evaluate existing and new materials and candidate solutions may be field deployed. Ground work for Phase 3 will also be accomplished during Phase 2. Phase 3 will be culmination of the project and will lead to the development of design guidelines and design software forming the foundation of a start-up firm or center for fire hazard mitigation of transportation structures.