This laboratory has equipment for development and evaluation of different types of sensors for soil and construction materials characterization. The current equipment in Dr. Yu’s laboratory includes:
- KD2 Pro- thermal properties analyzer
- TDR workstation for sensor fabrication and testing system
- GeoComp triaxial test system
- Fluke Ti50FT FlexCam® infrared thermal imager
- Bender element testing system
- Hanging column test device
- Ultrasonic testing system (ultrasonic pulse generator and ultrasonic transducers)
Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) measurement system: the pulse generator is capable of providing fast rise time of 45ps to 200 ps. The unit can be completely computer controlled in pulse generation and sampling.
UTA Geotechnical Laboratory Facilities
Geotechnical Laboratories at the UTA Department of Civil Engineering consist of three space modules (constructed in 1987) with total area of 5,230 ft2. One module is utilized for undergraduate teaching purposes, and the other two modules are used for graduate teaching and research purposes. Basic equipment is available for Atterberg limits, sieve and hydrometer, specific gravity, hydraulic conductivity (constant and falling head permeameters), standard and modified Proctor compaction, and unconfined compression testing.
Unsaturated Soil Equipment
A complete set of filter papers, tensiometers, psychrometers, and pressure plate extractor devices from Soilmoisture Equipment Corporation is available for measurement of suction potential and assessment of soil-water characteristic curves (SWCC) in unsaturated soils. Suction potential testing can be conducted using 5-bar or 15-bar HAE ceramic plate extractors. A full set of stress-controlled pressure cells from Geotechnical Consulting & Testing Systems (GCTS) is also available for SWCC testing of soils under controlled suction and normal stress states.
Software
UTA Civil Engineering and Geotechnical engineering areas use several commercial geotech software such as LPILE and finite element software such as ABAQUS, PFC 2D and 3D, FLAC 2D and 3C, and PLAXIS (3D Foundation) in both teaching and research related activities.