Laboratories

The department has excellent laboratory facilities for undergraduate education and research, including the new undergraduate laboratories for water resources and environmental engineering, laboratories for geotechnical engineering and civil engineering materials, and several state-of-the-art research laboratories.

Our Laboratories Include:

• Advanced Geo/Structural Laboratory
• Advanced Materials Laboratory
• Computational Dynamics and Materials Laboratory
• Concrete Laboratory
• Environmental Engineering STEM Teaching Laboratory
• Environmental Laboratory
• Fluid Mechanics STEM Teaching Laboratory
• Geotechnical Laboratory
• Hydrologic Modeling Laboratory
• Infrastructure Sensors Laboratory
• Materials Laboratory
• Nano Impact Laboratory
• Structures Laboratory
• Surveying Laboratory
• Tissue Engineering Laboratory
• Transportation Laboratory
• Water Resources Engineering Laboratory

This laboratory is housed in Ehly Hall (Room 110). This laboratory has one environmental chamber, one curing room, and one strong floor/wall. The laboratory was set up in Fall 2016, which is an excellent and necessary addition to the structural thrust of NDSU. 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. The laboratory also hosts the Express 8 System (the acoustic emission board and system) and the 2KN Shimadzu compression and tension testing machine, which could help to sense the conditions of structural members and systems and test the mechanical behavior of soft materials, biological tissues and 3D printed polymer products. This machine currently has one set of wedge grips and additional custom made grips for testing 3D printed cubes.

Laboratory Equipment
Some of the major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below.

• 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 is housed in Ehly Hall (Room 118). This laboratory houses equipment used for nanotechnology and nanomaterials research and education. Most of the equipment items in this laboratory have been procured in the last ten years through two National Science Foundation equipment grants: the Instrumentation for Materials Research grant and the Major Research Instrumentation grant.

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment are listed below:

• 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. 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. In the Spring semester, this lab is used in CME 260: Soils and Foundations and CME 453: Concrete Design and Construction courses.

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below:

• 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 Tests 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 STEM Teaching Laboratory is located in the A. Glenn Hill Center. It occupies two rooms: AGHill 310 and AGHill 314. AGHill 300 is the designated teaching laboratory and AGHill 314 is the Storage-cum-Preparation Room. Most equipment items in this laboratory are dedicated to water and wastewater sample analyses. This wet chemistry laboratory is designed for undergraduate teaching and can accommodate four groups of five students each. It allows ample hands-on activity opportunities for each student. The laboratory is used for CE 371 Environmental Engineering Laboratory class and other environmental engineering/science courses (e.g., CE 370 Environmental Engineering, CE 479/679 Advanced Water and Wastewater Engineering, CE 471/671 Environmental Nanotechnology, and ECS 740 Environmental Management).

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below:

• 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 Balanc
• Desiccator

The Environmental Laboratory is located in AGHill 306, AGHill 310 and AGHill 314. The laboratory is primarily used for environmental engineering research with specific emphasis on water and wastewater. The laboratory is designed for undergraduate and graduate research. It is also used for a few technical elective classes depending on the need for specialized experiments (e.g., running treatability studies in CE 471/671 Environmental Nanotechnology and CE 479/679 Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment). One of the adjacent rooms contain the large analytical instruments and chemical storage.

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below:

• 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 STEM Teaching Laboratory is located in the A. Glenn Hill Center (AGHill 114). This new teaching laboratory is well equipped for serving the CE undergraduate curriculum. Most equipment and instruments (e.g., C6-MKII-10 Fluid Friction Measurements and A-12 Hydraulic Demonstration Channel) in the laboratory are new. The laboratory has equipment for demonstrating and verifying fundamental principles of fluid mechanics (statics, kinematics, and dynamics). It also has several devices for measuring both pipe flow and channel flow.

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below:

• 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 room ???. The equipment and facilities in the laboratory (both hardware and software) are mainly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the CAREER grant EAR-0907588 and the EPSCoR grant IIA-1355466. The laboratory 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. It also supports undergraduate and graduate course teaching efforts (e.g., CE 476/676 Watershed Modeling and CE 477/677 Applied Hydrology). This laboratory is mainly used for hydrologic modeling and hydrologic data analysis. 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.

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below:

• Dell Workstations, Precision Tower 7910 XCTO Base
• Personal Computers

The laboratory is used for teaching and conducting research on basic sensor development and testing. This laboratory is designed for both undergraduate/graduate teaching and research. It can accommodate one group of five students allowing hands-on activity for each student. The laboratory is used for CE 782 Introduction to Intelligent Infrastructure, which is offered in spring semesters. The course consists of two experimental sessions. In the experimental sessions, students learn to install strain gauges, test strain gauges, and perform related data analysis. In addition, more than four research projects are also conducted in the laboratory.

Laboratory Equipment
Some of the major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below.

• An optical signal analyzer (Ando_AQ6330)
• A broadband light source (Agilent 83437)
• An optic fiber fusion kits (Sumitomo Fusion Splicers Type-35)
• A RMS bench digital multimeter
• Two optical fiber cleaver
• 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. Some of the laboratory equipment items are also used for the soil mechanics (geotechnical) laboratory.

Laboratory Equipment
Some of the major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below.

• 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 (NILab) is located in Ehly 106 and used for conducting research on applications of nanomaterials and their impacts on the ecosystem components. The laboratory is designed for undergraduate and graduate research. Students in technical elective classes (e.g., CE 471/671 Environmental Nanotechnology) use this laboratory for nano-related experiments. Workspace is available in this laboratory, allowing ample hands-on activities for each student. Two custom-base plant growth chambers (mini-greenhouses) are located in the laboratory. The attached small room is used for cell culture and microbiological experiments.

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below:

• 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 room 101, is used for teaching the basics of tension test and serves as the office for the ASCE student chapter. The structures laboratory is also used for steel bridge and concrete canoe manufacturing and practicing. Recently, the laboratory was upgraded with an MTS 809.10 Axial Torsional Test System Assembly, which has been widely used for research in structures and materials field.

Laboratory Equipment
Some of the major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below.

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

The laboratory, located at Shephard Arena room 111, has capabilities for teaching the basics of plane surveying as it pertains to civil engineering and construction. Sufficient equipment is available to outfit 17 groups of three students each. Thus, the laboratory sections are limited to about 50 students.

Laboratory Equipment
Some of the major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below.

• 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

This laboratory is housed in Sugihara Hall Room 102. This laboratory has equipment for the cell culture facilities required for tissue engineering. The laboratory was set up in Spring 2006 and all equipment was funded by research equipment grants. This laboratory is an excellent and necessary addition to the Biomaterials thrust of NDSU. It provides a capability to do cell adhesion studies on how human cells adhere and proliferate in synthetic materials made to replace human tissues. The tissue engineering thrust deals with the design of mechanically strong scaffolds that are seeded with cells with the idea that new tissue can be generated by the human body that is synthetic and living. This field includes both engineering mechanics and biology.

Laboratory Equipment
The major pieces of equipment are listed below:

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

A separate space has been dedicated for transportation laboratory within the department, located at ABEN Service Center 201C. The laboratory space has made it possible to house devices, computers, and assistants to provide a safe, secure, and continuous work related to integrated transportation teaching and research within the department. The efforts in transportation laboratory are also supported by surveying equipment, which are stored in a separate building.

Laboratory Equipment
Some of the major pieces of equipment in the laboratory are listed below.

• 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