CEE Laboratories
Environmental Science Lab
Faculty Contact: Mark Benjamin
Environmental Science and Hazardous Waste Research--Over 7,000 sq. ft. of lab space have been renovated through an NSF modernization grant. The laboratory facilities are well equipped with sophisticated research instruments including gas, liquid, and ion chromatographs; total organic carbon and total organic halide analyzers; inductively-coupled plasma and atomic absorption spectrophotometers; state-of-the-art particle size and particle mobility analyzers; and up-to-date instrumentation for conventional environmental engineering analyses. The labs are also equipped with several walk-in controlled temperature areas for experimentation. In addition to the facilities in the Department, collaborative arrangements can be made to use sophisticated equipment or other conventional equipment in other departments on campus, as needed. For example, in the past such arrangements have allowed students to use high-resolution electron microscopes and facilities for advanced surface analyses, and to take advantage of on-going research in genetic engineering. A C and N analyzer has been used in Oceanography and a Colter counter is available in Fisheries.
Limnology Lab
Faculty Contact: Michael Brett
The lake-stream laboratory is equipped with the usual limnological equipment, as well as an autoanalyzer, bench-top incubators, and research microscopes.
Air Resources Research
Faculty Contact
Instrumentation for air pollution monitoring include SO2, ozone, CO, hydrocarbon, and NOx analyzers. Several laboratory trailers are also available for field studies.
Hydraulics Research Lab
Faculty Contact: Alexander Horner-Devine
The Harris Hydraulic Laboratory is a fully equipped laboratory for both teaching and research in environmental fluid mechanics. The laboratory operates a number of experimental facilities. The five major research facilities are: a three-dimensional water wave facility (currently used for edge-wave research and tsunami runup research); a two-dimensional water wave facility (currently used for tsunami sediment research); a flow exchange facility (currently used for tsunami runup research and internal wave/gravity current research); a wind-wave facility; and a tidal flow facility (currently used for harbor flushing research). In addition, there are three other water flumes used for a variety of experiments in the areas of hydraulics and fluid mechanics, ranging from fish-screen hydrodynamics to swash-zone mechanics.
The instrumentation available for research includes a two-dimensional laser-Doppler anemometer system for measuring fluid velocities, a high resolution video-image acquisition and processing system, a laser flow visualization system, and various current meters, conductivity probes and thermistors. The laboratory operates a number of computer systems. A variety of mainframe computers on campus are directly accessible through a hard-line network system in the laboratory.
The laboratory is also used for undergraduate and graduate instruction. The facilities available are fully utilized for demonstrations of the basic principles of continuity, momentum, and energy in closed conduits and open channels, diffusion and dispersion processes, wave mechanics, and similitudes.
Structural Research Laboratory
Faculty Contact: Prof. Dawn Lehman
The Structural Research Laboratory contains a 2.4 million lb capacity Baldwin universal hydraulic testing machine, together with two smaller Baldwin testing machines of 300,000 and 120,000 lb capacities. A modern MTS Testing system includes 60 GPM pumping capacity and numerous controllers and actuators of various sizes. The laboratory also includes a strong floor, a reaction wall, and an earthquake simulator. A wide range of electronic and mechanical equipment is available for the measurement of load and response in structures. This includes fully computerized data acquisition and processing systems.
Structures Computing Lab
The Structures Computing Lab is currently under construction. Description of the lab's services will soon be available here.
Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory
The Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory contains the standard soil mechanics laboratory testing equipment, including soil classification, permeability, consolidation, direct shear, and triaxial testing devices. Specialized research equipment includes a microcomputer-controlled GDS pressure control system and Bishop-Wesley cell for stress path testing, a recently developed cuboidal shear ("true triaxial") device, 250 mm on a side, with complete computer control of stresses and deformations, as well as data acquisition and control, CKC cyclic triaxial, and a SBEL (Stokoe) resonant column device. The earthquake simulator can be configured to support a 2x2x1.5 m soil bin for soil dynamics studies. The Quaternary Research Center also offers modern laboratory facilities, including a 3 m by 5 m tilt slab in a temperature controlled room (+20deg. to -50deg.C) for model studies on frozen soils.
Concrete Lab
Faculty Contact: Donald Janssen
Soils Lab
Faculty Contact: Robert Holtz
Microbiology Lab
Faculty Contact: David Stahl
Computational Mechanics Lab
Faculty Contact: George Turkiyyah
Smart Transportation Applications and Research Laboratory (STAR Lab)
Faculty Contact: Prof. Yinhai Wang