North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Dueling Dinosaurs Exhibit

OVERVIEW

The structural engineer of record determined that the reinforced concrete beams supporting this museum’s floor needed to be strengthened to accommodate new loading – a 67-million-year-old fossil exhibit known as the “Dueling Dinosaurs!” Buried side by side during the Late Cretaceous period on a subtropical coastal plain in what is now Montana, the “Dueling Dinosaurs are among the most complete skeletons ever discovered of the two most iconic dinosaurs – Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex – including what is thought to be the only 100% complete skeleton of a T. rex known anywhere in the world.

Such a monumental discovery warranted a state-of-the-art exhibit which, in turn, required an increase in the shear capacity of the supporting floor beams. Fyfe’s Tyfo® SCH-41 system was used to supplement the shear capacity of the existing reinforced concrete floor beams. This was accomplished by orienting the unidirectional carbon fiber system in a “U-Wrap,” with the primary fibers running transversely to the axes of the beams.

Like all projects, this one was not without its challenges. The existing concrete beams were coated in a fire protection system, which needed to be removed prior to the installation of the Tyfo SCH-41 system. Adhesion testing was performed to confirm an adequate bond between the substrate and the Tyfo SCH-41 system. Witness panels were also created onsite and sent to an independent laboratory for ASTM D3039 testing to confirm the design properties of the Tyfo SCH-41 system.