Contents

Overview

The workflows supporting site cured specimens span a number of products within the QEST Platform. This article provides an overview of the workflow and process for site cured concrete specimens in the QEST Platform in order to tie all of the pieces together.

As can be seen in the diagram below, the process of creating, picking up and testing site cured specimens involves multiple types of users at different times in the life cycle of the specimen.

The following sections briefly touch on a number of these roles in relation to site cured specimens and how the QEST Platform supports this work.

Importantly, site cured specimens can (and often will) be created without an age or related test date. This scenario occurs when multiple site cured specimens are created but only one is initially tested and the strength result reviewed. At this stage, if the strength result of the first site cured specimen is not sufficient, another site cured specimen is scheduled to be tested at a later date. The cycle is then repeated until the desired strength is met. The QEST Platform supports this process by suggesting that site cured specimens be picked up and tested at their test date as well as allowing some specimens to be created initially without an age or test date. Consider a set of three site cured specimens created on January 1st 2020 to determine when formwork may be removed. For the sake of this example, the formwork can be removed when a site cured specimen reaches 3,000 psi (~20.5 MPa) in strength. Initially, when first cast in the field, the set might look like this:

Date: 1 Jan 2020

On January 4th, the first specimen is picked up and tested. If it fails to reach the required strength, the project manager may decide to wait longer to test the next specimen in the set before advising formwork can be removed, the age of the second site cured specimen to be tested will then depend on a variety of factors. In this example, it is assumed that a decision was made to test the second site cured specimen at 5 days after the first specimen's strength result was 1,800 psi (~12.5MPa). The set of site cured specimens would now look as follows:

Date: 4 Jan 2020

On the 6th of January, the second site cured specimen will be picked up and tested. If it meets the strength requirements, formwork can be removed and the final specimen can be disposed of. If it does not, the third specimen will be tested at a later date. In this example, it is assumed that the second specimen does meet the required strength, and the third specimen is, therefore, never tested. Resulting in the following, final, state of the specimens:

Field Technician

Field technicians can mark specimens as site cured in QESTField Tests workflows through the use of a checkbox on each specimen indicating this status as described in Concrete Sampling and Testing in the Field.

Specimens can be pre-created with the site cured flag set through selecting a concrete test group that contains site cured specimens.

The age of a specimen will determine its test date which, in turn, will determine when it will be scheduled for a pickup. Importantly, site cured specimens can (and often will) be created without an age or related test date. A mix of these can exist on a given concrete sample as well. So the first site cured specimen may have an age defined while the rest do not, similar to the specimens in the scenario presented above on the 1st of January 2020. Also important to note is that site cured specimens can be mixed with standard-cured specimens on the same sample without any issues.

Dispatcher

The dispatcher must ensure that site cured specimens are picked up on the correct date. The QESTField Scheduler assists with this by automatically suggesting concrete pickup work orders. For site cured specimens, these pickup work orders are suggested on the test date of the relevant specimen, as explained in Continuing Work for Ongoing Projects and Specimen Pickup.

The dispatcher will see a warning for any site cured specimens that will not generate a suggested pickup work order so that these can be addressed. Specimens will not suggest a pickup work order when when

• The test date is in the past and there is no date received set for the specimen.
• No test has been set and no date received has been set for the  specimen.

A button exists underneath the warning to show the project that these exist on and the project manager who should be notified. This list can also be downloaded to a CSV file for further distribution.

Laboratory Technician

Laboratory technicians will receive site cured specimens in the laboratory as well as perform the relevant strength tests on the specimens. QESTLab has special logic built in to ensure that site cured specimens are not marked as picked up alongside any standard-cured specimens on the same sample.

When testing site cured specimens in the laboratory, the required strength for these specimen types will be shown alongside the result so that the technician can more easily determine whether or not the strength requirement was met. This can be communicated to the appropriate project manager.

Project Manager

The project manager is a key individual in the workflow described herein. The project manager is ultimately responsible for

• Setting the site cured required strength on the relevant samples that contain site cured specimens,
• Setting subsequent test dates on site cured specimens that have yet to be tested,
• Defining any concrete test groups that include site cured specimens so that these can be easily pre-created in the field
• Marking any specimens that will remain un-tested as complete using the Marks field in QESTLab as described in Concrete Test Groups, Specimen Marks and Failure Modes

In order to find any site cured specimens that will not suggest a pickup work order, a special filter can be provided under the Tests/Documents node in QESTLab that will return all samples that contain incomplete site cured specimens for projects where the logged in user is set as the project manager.

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