airfield, or the various tests that are associated with thedesign or proportioning of concrete or asphalt-concretemixtures. Obviously, to do all of this testing, you mustmake sure that your EAs are properly trained. If youhave been away from a construction battalion for sometime, you may even find it necessary to do somerefresher training yourself.Work AssignmentsAs with the drafting and surveying section,requests for materials testing can be made using theengineering division work request (fig. 14-1). Thesecan then be posted to a work schedule and handledusing a priority-system method like that describedpreviously.Not all of the work requests, however, will beoriginated by a project supervisor or the QC division.Many of them should start with you. For this tohappen, you must become thoroughly familiar witheach of the projects the battalion is tasked with. Thisinvolves reviewing the project plans andspecifications to see what tests are needed andreviewing all project schedules to know when the testsare required. Having done this, you can generate thework requests and post work to the schedule withtentative start dates that can be adjusted as changesoccur. Obviously, you must coordinate closely withthe project supervisors and QC to know when changesare needed.Many of the materials tests are critical item teststhat must be performed at a given point in constructionbefore further construction work can proceed. Forinstance, asphalt paving operations on a road orparking area cannot start until the base material hasbeen compacted to meet specifications. CurrentCOM- SECONDNCB or COMTHIRDNCB andbattalion instructions pertinent to quality control stateminimum requirements and stress critical iteminspections and tests that must be performed duringconstruction. You should be particularly aware ofthese so that project work will not be delayed formaterials testing.You need to remember, too, that some tests aredependent upon other tests; for example, the resultsof in-place density testing using the nuclearmoisture-density meter must be compared with theresults of laboratory tests performed on the samematerial. For these pretests, you will not receive awork request; you must initiate them yourself. Neverwait until the last minute to have these tests performedor you maybe the cause of unnecessary constructiondelay.Analyzing Test ResultsAll materials tests have a specific purpose, andwhen carefully performed according to establishedstandard procedures should provide results that canbe reasonably expected. As a supervisor, you needto know what the end purpose is before you candecide what tests to perform and you need to knowwhat to expect from the tests. With this knowledge,you are in a position that enables you to analyze theresults of each test performed. When a test resultsin data that is greatly out of step with that expected,then you need to determine the cause; for example,if an in-place density test shows unexpectedly highresults, what happened? Was the test performedimproperly? Was a substance, such as cement,added to the soil that greatly increased the densityof the in-place material as compared to previouslyperformed laboratory tests? These things can, anddo, sometimes happen.In addition to analyzing the test results for accuracyand validity, you sometimes need to place the test datainto a more usable form. Figure 14-6, for example,shows California bearing ratio data that is presented ina usable form. You can read about this in MaterialsTesting, NAVFAC MO-330.Training of TestersLower rated personnel assigned as materialstesters should be given assignments for spare-timereading of printed sources on testing procedures.Locally used data forms should be explained. Newpersonnel should be assigned to learning on-the-jobprocedures in the laboratory and at the jobsite underexperienced personnel. The purpose of what is beingdone should always be explained; for example, theultimate effect of soil tests on the work of highwaysubgrading should be clearly shown. Some testing,such as fieldtests for soils, require extensive practiceto become proficient. Even though field testing is arequirement at the senior EA level, you should see toit that the junior rated EAs get a chance to practice itas often as possible under the watchful eye of anexperienced technician.There is relatively little routine, day-to-day workin testing since the work of the materials testing14-12
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