Laboratories

This laboratory housed in Ehly Hall Room 110 has one environmental chamber, one curing room, and one strong floor/wall. It provides a capability to perform the curing of concrete samples and evaluate the environmental effect on structural members, and provides basis for future large-scale testing of structural members and systems.

Equipment

• Express 8 acoustic emission board and system
• Inverted Trinocular Metallurgical Microscope & Camera
• NANO 1000T Grinder & Polisher
• 54621A2 Channel 60-MHz Magazoom Oscilloscope
• 33220A 20 MHz Function/Waveform Generator
• 2KN Shimadzu tension/compression and cyclic testing system.

The laboratory in Ehly Hall Room 118 houses equipment used for nanotechnology and nanomaterials research and education.

Equipment

• FTIR Microspectroscopy Bench (Thermo Electron)
• Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (MTEC)
• Atomic Force Microscope (Veeco)
• Nanoindentation – Load and displacement control and mapping (Hysitron)
• Nanodynamic Instrumentation (Hysitron)
• Optical Microscope
• High Precision diamond saw with goniometer (Isomet-Buehler)
• Spin Coater (Chemat)
• Sonicator
• Vacuum Oven

The Concrete and Soil Testing laboratory is located at the ABEN Service Center 202A and is designed for the preparation of various soil and concrete tests for construction management and engineering applications, as well as testing recommendations for undergraduate and graduate research, the laboratory follows ASTM standards.

Equipment

• Humboldt H-3175 Sonometer Resonance Frequency Test
• Forney Compressive Test Apparatus
• Forney Rotary Lab Sifter
• Triaxial Loader Test Apparatus
• 2-Cell Control Panel for Permeability Testing
• Slump Test Sets
• Freeze Thaw Cabinet, Elite Series
• Concrete Air Meters
• Self-Consolidation Concrete(SCC) Segregation Test Set
• Precision Tank Heater
• Atterberg Limit Test Sets
• Ovens
• Concrete Mixers
• Sieve Sets
• Pressure Gauge

The Environmental Engineering Teaching Laboratory is located in Ag Hill 310 and 314. Most equipment items in this laboratory are dedicated to analyzing water and wastewater samples. It allows for ample hands-on learning opportunities for students.

Equipment

• GC/MS System
• High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
• Spectrophotometers
• Turbid meters
• pH Meters
• Conductivity Meters
• COD Reactors
• Dissolved Oxygen (DO) Meters
• Microscope
• Vacuum Pumps
• Ovens
• Jar Test Units
• Muffle Furnace
• Incubator
• Weighing Balance
• Desiccator

The Environmental Engineering Research Laboratory is located in AG Hill 306. The laboratory is primarily used for water and wastewater research by undergraduate and graduate students.

Equipment

• A GC System
• A total organic carbon (TOC) Analyzer
• Graphite Furnace Atomic Adsorption Spectrometer (AAS)
• Spectrophotometers
• Turbid meters
• pH Meters
• Dissolved oxygen (DO) Meters
• Ozone Generator and Control System
• Respirometers
• Microscopes
• Conductivity Meters
• Distillation and Digestion Systems for sample preparation
• Vacuum pumps
• Ovens
• Ion-selective Electrodes
• Muffle Furnace
• Weighing Balances

The Fluid Mechanics Teaching Laboratory is located in AG Hill 114. This teaching laboratory is well-equipped for our hands-on undergraduate curriculum. It includes instruments for demonstrating and verifying fundamental principles of fluid mechanics and several devices for measuring both pipe flow and channel flow.

Equipment

• Pipe Surge and Water Hammer (H405)
• Two-Channel Oscilloscope (H405a)
• Volumetric Hydraulic Bench (H1D)
• Series & Parallel Pump Test Set (H32)
• Liquid Sedimentation Apparatus (H3111)
• A-12 Hydraulic Demonstration Channel
• Open Tank Settings
• Bourdon Gauge (201)
• Fluid Friction Measurements (C6-MKII-10)

The Hydrologic Modeling Laboratory is located in Shephard Arena and is primarily used for hydrologic modeling research, graduate and undergraduate student training, and the relevant outreach activities. The laboratory facilities a variety of modeling research with focus on multi-scale hydrologic modeling, topographic characterization, GIS data analysis, and water quality modeling. The specific research activities include: development of various hydrologic models, development of various modeling software packages and analysis tools, and applications of water quantity and quality modeling in North Dakota.

The laboratory is used for teaching and researching basic sensor development and testing and is set up for hands-on learning activities.

Equipment

• An optical signal analyzer (Ando_AQ6330)
• A broadband light source (Agilent 83437)
• An optic fiber fusion kit (Sumitomo Fusion Splicers Type-35)
• A RMS bench digital multimeter
• Two optical fiber cleavers
• A high-frequency fiber Bragg grating sensor integrator
• A D-4 strain gauge data acquisition conditioner

Located in the ABEN Service Center room 102, the laboratory is used for teaching the basics of hot mix asphalt and Portland cement concrete, two major construction materials used in the civil engineering and construction industries. Recently, the laboratory was upgraded with advanced equipment for bituminous materials and mixture testing.

Equipment

• Superpave Gyratory compactor for the design of hot asphalt
• Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) for testing asphalt binders
• Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) for testing asphalt binders
• Pressure Aging Vessel (PAV) for aging asphalt binders
• Rotary Thin Film Oven (RTFO) for aging asphalt binders
• High Speed Mixer and Shearing asphalt additives
• Marshall hammer for preparing hot mix asphalt samples
• Marshall breaking machine for testing hot mix asphalt samples
• Sieves and screens for determining aggregate particle sizes
• Ovens for heating and drying aggregates
• Satec compression machine for testing concrete cylinders
• Other miscellaneous equipment for mixing concrete and casting concrete cylinders

The Nano Impact Laboratory is located in Ehly 106 and used for conducting teaching and research on applications of nanomaterials and their impacts on the ecosystem. Workspace is available in this laboratory, allowing ample hands-on activities for students.

Equipment

• Spectrophotometers
• Turbidimeters
• Malvern Zetasizer with Nano Sampler
• Voltammetry (VA computrace Metrohm)
• Controlled environment Plant Growth Chambers (Small greenhouse)
• Environmental Chamber
• Fridge for sample storage
• Sonication Bath
• Biological Safety Cabinet
• Fume Hood

The structures laboratory, located in the ABEN Service Center 101, is used for teaching the basics of tension testing. It also serves as the office for the ASCE student chapter and the home of the NDSU steel bridge and concrete canoe teams.

Equipment

• 250-kip compression testing machine
• Environmental chamber
• 22-kips MTS tension/compression and torsion testing system

Located at Shephard Arena Room 111, the surveying lab is used by all civil engineering and construction students to learn the basics of plane surveying.

Equipment

• Automatic levels
• Engineers transits
• Electronic distance measuring instrument (EDM)
• Total station with data collector
• Total station without data collector
• Laser level
• Other miscellaneous equipment such as rods, chains and plumb bobs

Housed in Sugihara Hall Room 102, the lab is fully equipped with the cell culture facilities required for tissue engineering, a field that includes both engineering mechanics and biology.

Equipment

• Incubator
• Low temperature (-70°C) freezer
• Freezer
• Centrifuge
• Autoclave
• Inverted microscope (Carl Zeiss)
• Biohazard hood
• Electrospinning apparatus
• Liquid nitrogen storage

The transportation laboratory is located in the ABEN Service Center Room 201C. It contains devices, computers, and assistants for integrated transportation teaching and research.

Equipment

• Ten additional and newer JAMAR technologies Traffic Data Collection (TDC) devices
• Four video cameras and tripods
• A GPS-based device for travel time study (GPS2LT) and related software (PCTRAVEL)
• Microstation and GEOPAK software
• Highway Capacity Software (HCS), Trafficware’s SYNCHRO and SIMTRAFFIC software, and PTV Vision, Inc.’s VISSIM and VISUM software