The facilities are equipped with state-of-art equipment and instrumentation to support research activities.
Built Environment Lab (BEL)
The Built Environment Laboratory (BEL) is a 12,000 square foot building and is the hub of built environment teaching and research on campus. The focus of BEL is developing efficient building and bridge materials and systems. The Structural testing area (within BEL) is a 60’ by 100’ high bay facility with a 2400 square foot strong floor and is designed to test large structural members. The lab is equipped with closed loop hydraulic and screw-driven actuators for applying loads, BRERWULF for applying static and fluctuating air pressures, an air cannon for missile impact studies, a universal test machine for testing small components, and data acquisition equipment to measure and record data (stresses, loads, accelerations and deformations). In addition, the lab serves as the home base for mobile instrumentation lab for testing highway bridges.
In addition, the group has access to the Wind Load Test Facility. The WLTF is a 10,000 sf laboratory housing one of the largest atmospheric boundary wind tunnels in the country. The WLTF possesses an instrumentation and model shop area, actuators and fabrication workshop that are used for constructing test specimens.