Facilities
Laboratory facilities
Structural Engineering Research LaboratoryThe Structural Testing Laboratory is a
7400 square-foot two-story high bay containing a 1400 square foot reaction floor
and a 300 square foot by 16 foot deep geotechnical test pit surrounded by an additional
400 square foot reaction floor. The entire Laboratory area is served by a 3000 psi
hardline connected to a 180 gpm MTS hydraulic pump. The Laboratory is equipped with
55 and 110 kip servo-hydraulic actuators suitable for static, dynamic and fatigue
testing. There are two independent control systems for the MTS actuators permitting
two tests to be conducted simultaneously. Two portable 10000 psi hydraulic systems
equipped with double-acting hollow-core rams having a maximum capacity of 400 kips
are also available for static testing. A modular “meccano”-style test frame is located
on the reaction floor and may be tailored to suit a wide variety of test configurations.
Two modular 64 channel high-speed data acquisition systems are available.
The entire high bay is serviced by a 10 ton overhead crane and a 3.5 ton forklift.
Access is provided through a 10 foot wide by 14 foot tall roll-up door.
The structural group has access to state-of-the-art tools for Non-Destructive Evaluation,
a fully equipped Materials Testing Laboratory, two additional 55 kip MTS hydraulic
test systems for material testing, a MTS Drop Tower for dynamic testing, and an
MTS Vibration Testing system.
Materials Laboratory
Servo-hydraulic closed-loop Material Test SystemThe Materials Testing Laboratory
occupies over 2900 square feet including the main laboratory and an asphalt testing
laboratory. A bulk materials storage facility is attached to the lab. Equipment
includes a 135 kip capacity Instron Servo-hydraulic closed-loop Material Test System,
a 60 kip Tinius Olsen Material Testing System, 500 kip and 250 kip concrete cylinder
compression testing machines, a Marshall Mechanical Compactor, a NCAT Asphalt Content
Tester, a Los Angeles Abrasion Test System, digital ovens, digital scales, a number
of mechanical sieve shakers, and equipment to conduct most ASTM and AASHTO Standard
tests on sand, aggregate and fresh and cured concrete. An environmental exposure
laboratory includes two environmental chambers and a freeze-thaw table
Computing Facilities
The College of Engineering and Information Technology offers excellent computer
resources through networked personal computers and the university mainframe. Other
available hardware includes high-end workstations and parallel processing systems.
Students have ready access to computer-aided drawing, graphics, word processing,
and other software applications useful for coursework and research. The Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering also has a dedicated graduate student computer
resource lab consisting of 10 personal computers for research and projects and several
dedicated high-end dual processor workstations for complex numerical modeling and
data analysis. There are also dedicated department servers for file storage and
printing services.
