Testing at hyperTunnel’s Outdoor Learning Environment (“the hOLE”) is well into its second year. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the site is a hive of activity, involving members of hyperTunnel’s engineering team and various technical partners, including construction chemicals giant, Master Builders Solutions (MBS).
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hyperTunnel’s inground construction engineering development work is led by Senior Engineer, Dr Alkistis Karabela, who joined hyperTunnel 18 months ago from the University of Portsmouth where she was a Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering. In addition to co-ordinating the close collaborative work of hyperTunnel and MBS, Alkistis is maintaining links with her academic roots, overseeing a number of research projects on the new thinking being applied by hyperTunnel.
“We have been investigating many different chemical combinations and evaluating their performance at our on-site laboratory. Our scientific team is being supported on site by experts from MBS and from experts from within the academic community such us the University of Milano-Biccoca, the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Portsmouth,” explains Alkistis.
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“It is fantastic to be at the heart of something so exciting, that others in this field want to study too. We have a great collective pooling of resources – from chemical formulations, to specialist lab testing to the test site itself – and are creating academically-significant studies. We’re looking forward to publishing evidence of our approach in a robust way.”
All hyperTunnel testing is performed in accordance with the relevant British Standards and ASTM International standards.