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Laboratory
facilities
The
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department is constantly creating
new and upgrading its existing laboratory facilities that are used
in teaching and research. The Department also shares laboratory
facilities with the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
and, as a result, the laboratories are varied and extensive. The State
of Alabama, private industry an the local community work together
with appropriations, gifts, donations and discounts to maintain
and modernize laboratory equipment. To educate engineers who will
be immediately productive in industry, the Department must have the most
modern equipment available. The following is a summary of our present
undergraduate laboratories and some of the equipment in each.
Computer
Laboratory
PC-based AutoCAD units support the College's
instructional computing needs for graphical and computational intensive
applications. This laboratory contains the latest computers with T1
internet connectivity. Also, the microcomputers have access
to the Alabama State Network via the Engineering Local Area Network.
Although this facility is used throughout the students’ UAH career,
its major function is support of the senior design courses (CE 498 and
499).
Geographical
Information Systems Laboratory
Located in NSSTC 4085, this computer
lab supports CE 411, Introduction to GIS. The lab contains an instructor
computer with video projector and is equipped with several Internet
capable Pentium computers with ArcVIEW GIS Software and writable CD-ROM
drives.
Hazardous
Waste and Environmental Design Treatment Laboratory
This laboratory allows student teams
to build and test bench-scale treatment processes to assess environmental
remediation screening (CE 458). For example, the students have compared
low temperature thermal desorption, stabilization, and soil washing/volatilization
methods for cleaning contaminated soil per DOE requirements. The
results of these screening tests are used for optimizing their
treatment proposals. Students are taught precautions for safe handling
of hazardous materials: all work with volatile materials is carried
out under fume hoods.
Hydraulics
Laboratory
This facility is used to introduce students
to the physical concepts of energy, momentum and resistance as covered
in the Hydraulics course (CE 441). The lab consists of several open
channel flumes that are used to demonstrate such principles as critical
depth, hydraulic jumps, controls, weir flow, and sluice gates. A number
of sophisticated measurement tools are available including manometers,
pitot tubes, and verniers for accurate depth measurements. Students
are able to observe the hydraulic principles in real life, take measurements
associated with the relevant governing equations, and thus verify for
themselves that the equations correctly describe the principles.
Soils
Laboratory
The primary goal of this laboratory is
to introduce junior and senior level undergraduate students to Geotechnical
Engineering and the basic principles of soil mechanics (CE 373). Students
conduct standard laboratory experiments to classify soil and determine
the mechanical properties such as permeability, compaction, consolidation,
and strength. The properties of soil are critical for application in
the design of foundations, dams, retaining walls, tunnels, offshore
structures, and slope stability analysis. This laboratory work is supportive
to the lecture material in Soil Mechanics (CE 372) and is a prerequisite
to coursework that may include Foundations (CE 485), Earth Structures
(CE 459), and more advanced elective courses in Geotechnics.
Surveying
Laboratory
Located in Technology Hall S212, this
lab supports CE 284 and CE 384, Surveying I and Advanced Surveying,
respectively. The lab contains theodolites, levels, range poles, total
stations and prisms, and survey quality GPS equipment.
Water
Quality/ Unit Operations Laboratory
This laboratory has been recently established
to introduce senior-level civil engineering students to the principles
of water quality control in CE 455. These laboratory exercises support
the lecture material in the environmental stem’s required
design course, Water Quality Control (CE 456). The laboratory is set up
to perform physical, chemical and biological water quality experiments.
The students also learn how to implement unit processes (sedimentation,
filtration, flocculation/coagulation, and disinfection) to design
a treatment train that produces drinking water up to US standards.
The Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, TH-S201,Technology Hall, The University of Alabama in Huntsville,
Huntsville, AL-35899.Phone:(256)824-6854,Fax:(256)824-6724. bjmoore@cee.uah.edu
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