FROST TEST FACILITY   

Client: Rowan University
Location: Mullica Hill, NJ
Design Services: 2024 

Recognition:
2025 - AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Design Award, Honor Award Recipient


Synopsis:

The new Seasonal Frost Test Facility at Rowan University’s Center for Research & Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (“CREATES”) has worked for years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on pavement engineering research.  The new Seasonal Frost Test Facility is a large, climate-controlled indoor laboratory designed to simulate freezing and thawing conditions year-round. Researchers can precisely control both air and ground temperatures to study how cold environments affect infrastructure, vehicles, materials, and engineering systems.

At its core, the building is designed to support transformative student learning and leading-edge research through flexible, interdisciplinary environments that encourage discovery, innovation, and engagement. As a physical catalyst for collaboration, it reinforces Rowan’s leadership in engineering and materials science while creating opportunities for meaningful partnerships across the School, the University, industry, government, startups, and the broader emerging technology research community.

Key capabilities include:

• Ambient temperatures ranging roughly from - 20°F to above 90°F.
• Artificial freezing of large ground sections to create controlled frost depths.
• Full-scale testing of roads, airport pavements, foundations, buried utilities, and construction materials.
• Simulation of repeated freeze-thaw cycles that would otherwise take years outdoors.

The new Seasonal Frost Test Facility is being funded through a $30 million USACE grant to expand research:

• Arctic and subarctic construction materials
• Pavement performance during seasonal freeze-thaw cycles
• Permafrost impacts on infrastructure
• Transportation systems for cold regions

Cold environments create unique engineering challenges for military operations. The facility supports research such as:

• Airfield damage repair: Developing concrete and repair materials that can restore damaged runways in freezing conditions within hours instead of days.
• Military mobility: Understanding how frozen or thawing ground affects heavy military vehicles.
• Road and airfield design: Improving pavements that must withstand harsh winter conditions.
• Buried infrastructure: Evaluating how frost affects pipelines, cables, and utility systems.
• Cold-weather construction: Testing new materials before they're deployed in Arctic or high-latitude environments.

Although funded in part for defense needs, much of the research also benefits civilian infrastructure. Results have been used by:

• State transportation agencies
• Universities
• Civil engineers
• Airport authorities
• Arctic and northern communities

Research has included pavement studies, foundation engineering, and infrastructure resilience in cold climates.

Rowan also already operates an Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility with a Heavy Vehicle Simulator obtained through a cooperative agreement with USACE. The new frost facility is intended to complement that capability by adding controlled cold-weather testing.  Additionally, Rowan's Seasonal Frost Test Facility will support transportation and infrastructure research , complementing the Army's existing capabilities at the Frost Effects Research Facility (FERF), located at the U.S. Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire.

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