Extensive damage to dwellings in the east of Ireland, arising from the expansive pyritic fill material used beneath the floor slabs, prompted the laboratory study presented in this paper to quantify the expansion and study its influencing factors. A novel experimental arrangement, in which sample height and water supply were varied, was used to test a large quantity of active pyritic infill taken from an affected house in the greater Dublin area.The expansion of ten separate fill specimens was measured over a 175 day period from December 2010 to May 2011. Remarkably consistent results were obtained when the expansions were normalised by the sample height, with expansion rates of approximately 2-3 mm/year/metre height of fill for specimens standing in water, where the rates were largely insensitive to the amount of water supplied. More rapid expansion was noted for one specimen to which no additional water was supplied during the test. A steady reduction in pH of the water, although relatively small, was consistent with pyrite oxidation reactions occurring in the samples during the test, and also implies the occurrence of leaching of ions from the pores in the mudstone and also that oxidation reactions may have been occurring in the saturated mudstone. Changes in expansion were found also to correlate strongly with changes in the ambient temperature in all specimens.

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Damage to domestic dwellings in the greater Dublin area of Ireland engendered by the expansion of the underfloor fill material containing pyrite has become a high-profile national problem in recent years. In this paper, a novel physical model is described in which the profile of underfloor materials representative of Irish construction practice is modelled; the relevant vertical dimensions are at full scale. The study has enabled the rate of pyritiferous expansion to be ascertained over a period of 830 d at laboratory temperatures; rates of 0·0021 and 0·0008 (mm/mm)/year were observed with no loading and a pressure of 3·4 kPa on the concrete slab, respectively. The rates of expansion are broadly consistent with those obtained from reference pipe experiments. These data are an important frame of reference for anticipating the time required to generate a specific amount of floor movement in domestic dwellings. Pressures generated within the fill are low and consistent with the occurrence of significant expansion.

This chapter concerns the design, delivery and management of a unique part-time postgraduate MSc in Construction Project Management (MScCPM) programme through an industry-academia partnership in Ireland during the period 2007-2010. The partners are BAM Contractors, part of the wider Royal BAM Group based in The Netherlands, and Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). There are many innovative Work Integrated Learning (WIL) aspects to this bespoken programme, including the blending of teaching and assessment by both WIT lecturers and senior BAM staff. There is also a blend of traditional classroom activities and e-learning technologies to suit the geographically dispersed participants. All stakeholders in this programme have benefited from their participation. These benefits and the associated lessons learned are described in the hope that they may be of use to those developing WIL postgraduate programmes in the future.

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