Facilities & Labs
Facilities & Labs
Students and faculty in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering conduct research in several state-of-the-art labs and in other facilities. A partial list of research labs and facilities includes the following:
Transportation Engineering Research Laboratories
Please visit the GW Transportation Program website for a full description of all corresponding laboratories and equipment.
Environmental Engineering Lab
This is an undergraduate lab for environmental engineering, biological treatment of wastes and wastewater, process kinetics and toxicity research. It contains a gas chromatograph, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, incubators, and associated water testing equipment.
Earthquake Engineering and Structures Laboratory
The Earthquake Engineering and Structures Laboratory maintains a six-degrees-of-freedom shake table and several state-of-the-art material testing units. Researchers in the lab are engaged in testing and simulation of the response of structures and soils subjected to earthquake and other dynamic/cyclic loading conditions.
Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics Lab
This is a lab that provides instruction and research in fluid mechanics. It contains a table scale flow channel, laser anemometry equipment, Schlieren flow visualization equipment, hot wire anemometry equipment; high-speed photography equipment, and a recirculating water channel/flume and hydraulic testing benches.
High Bay Laboratory
The High Bay Lab is a large versatile testing facility with a three-story clear height located in the George Washington University's new Science and Engineering Hall. The lab features an integrated reinforced “strong wall’ and “strong floor” which can be used to carry out a wide range of tests on large-scale structural components and assemblies of up to 100 million pounds of force. The lab includes a 20-ton double girder overhead roof crane, a dedicated loading bay at the mezzanine level, a concrete mixing room, an equipment room and a machine shop. Both undergraduate and graduate students are involved in experimental research programs performed in the High Bay Lab.
Geotechnical Engineering Lab
This lab maintains traditional as well as advanced geotechnical engineering testing equipment. It is primarily used in undergraduate and graduate courses in geotechnical engineering as well as in research on physical modeling of geomaterials
Structural Testing and Material Science Lab
This is an undergraduate material testing, structural component testing, composite and advanced cementatious materials research lab. It contains static and dynamic materials loading equipment, data acquisition systems, and a 400-kip self-equilibrium testing frame.