School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering - Our facilities and expertise

OUR FACILITIES AND EXPERTISE

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND CIVIL ENGINEERING

Practical experimentation and testing – what our school has to offer www.lboro.ac.uk/abce/business

THE SIR FRANK GIBB LABORATORY As an integral part of the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, the Sir Frank Gibb laboratory building is a multifunctional, state-of-the-art complex of laboratories and workshops covering Civil Engineering, Built Environment and Architecture disciplines.

With a floor area of over 3,000 square metres, it houses a vast array of testing equipment and is staffed by experienced multidisciplinary technicians. It is used for extensive teaching, research, enterprise and consultancy activities. Our team work closely with industrial and commercial clients to provide flexible, bespoke testing solutions together with more routine standard test programmes.

The main laboratories specialise in high quality concrete manufacture and testing together with soils and aggregate testing, structural element testing including the testing of metals, woods, plastics and composites, hydraulic modelling, water quality testing together with many aspects associated with building energy including simulations for thermal comfort and solar energy performance.

All laboratories are supported by multi-skilled workshop facilities which provide manufacturing and maintenance support.

Contact Mark Harrod, Technical Facilities Manager T: +44 (0)1509 222638 E: M.Harrod@lboro.ac.uk or Professor Tarek Hassan, Associate Dean (Enterprise) T: +44 (0)1509 222602 E: T.Hassan@Lboro.ac.uk

Cover images Front: Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory Back: The precise measurement of flow using Coherent Acoustic Doppler Anemometry

OUR FACILITIES

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3D Concrete printing and robotic construction

2 Sport surface testing laboratory

3 Bio engineering laboratory

4 Geotechnical laboratory

5 Hydraulic engineering laboratory

3D Concrete printing and robotic construction • 3DCP – large format 3D printing (rapid prototyping).

• Our two latest ABB robots each work on a 7-axis basis and when combined to work together they can run up to 10x faster than first generation 3D concrete printers.

• 3DCP can create complex geometries without moulds and every part can be slightly different, which is not viable in conventional casting.

Sport surface testing laboratory Brings together engineering and sport.

• We have a range of ‘artificial athletes’, ‘grip’ testers and ‘ball cannons’ to measure the play performance and safety of a range of artificial surface systems for football, rugby, hockey, athletics and indoor floors. We also measure player perception.

• To complement our indoor laboratories, our campus sports facilities are our outdoor laboratories.

• Research into design, construction, maintenance, biomechanics and safety. We work with Sport England, FIH, IRB, FIFA and manufacturers.

• Researching the engineering of sport surfaces for user comfort and safety, maintenance and durability.

Bio engineering laboratories • Class 2 Microbiology lab with supporting analytical chemistry and pilot plant labs.

• Used for measuring water and effluent quality together with the development of anaerobic digestion techniques and pollution control.

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Geotechnical laboratories • Wide range of standard and non-standard equipment for the testing of soils, rocks and aggregates which include: Triaxial and shear box testing, Particle size distribution, CBR, Chemical analysis, Rock strength, Consolidation, Compaction, MCV and Density.

Hydraulic engineering • This area is directly related to the design of bridges, dams and channels and to both sanitary and Environmental Engineering and the main purpose of the lab is to model and test flows in a highly controlled manner.

• Extensive facilities for modeling hydraulic flows using a range of flumes.

Environmental chambers • For assessing thermal comfort and environmental systems.

• Used for thermal comfort studies, variation of temperatures, humidity and ventilation.

• Currently has evaporative cooling ceiling tiles installed.

• Technology developed at Loughborough and exploitation as a viable energy saving product being explored.

6 Environmental chambers

7 Instrument calibration

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8 Solar simulation laboratory

9 Building energy

10 Concrete, materials and structural testing

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Instrument calibration • Energy and environmental monitoring in domestic and non-domestic buildings.

• Climatic Chambers are used to calibrate a wide range of sensors as well as simulating environments.

Solar simulation laboratory • Scientific simulation of the sun – accurate reproduction of the solar spectrum across a range of intensities.

• Can assesss the performace of solar thermal panels or PV or other building components.

• Tilt-able test frame to simulate roof pitch.

• Measuring differences in thermal performance.

Building energy • Calibration suite for Building Energy Performance Monitoring.

• Series of Full Scale Test houses incorporating simulated occupancy.

• Thermal shore rig and an air source heat pump rig for low carbon research.

• Air conditioning in buildings.

• Measuring real buildings with real people.

• Supported by laboratories for testing, demonstrating and calibrating instruments: – Gas and electricity metering – Indoor environment (T, RH, CO2) – Weather

Concrete, materials and structural testing Testing machines calibrated to UKAS standards

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Materials testing • Cube, beam and cylinder element testing for compressive and flexural strength, load/deflection, and modulus of elasticity • Non-standard element testing for a variety of materials e.g. metals, wood, plastics and composites.

Batching and mixing • High quality material manufacture.

• Bespoke material design.

BISPA

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• Established to improve the awareness of BIM (Building Information Modelling) together with pipework related issues and innovations.

• It provides hands on training using our unique and interactive training rigs.

• It is a collaboration between Building Services Staff at Loughborough University and industrial partners to improve HVAC performance and promote low energy design.

• A key part of our ethos is our extensive links with industry which help drive innovation and productivity throughout the Civil Engineering and Built Environment sectors.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW WE CAN WORK WITH YOU, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH.

If you feel our technicians expertise and facilities could be of benefit to you or your organisation or would like further information about working with us please contact:

School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU UK

02412/ABCE/Nov19

Mark Harrod, Technical Facilities Manager T: +44 (0)1509 222638 E: M.Harrod@lboro.ac.uk or Professor Tarek Hassan, Associate Dean (Enterprise) T: +44 (0)1509 222602 E: T.Hassan@Lboro.ac.uk