Civil engineering testing facilities
Dr Sunday Popo-Ola, a research and teaching fellow within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been involved in academic consultancy since 1993. Sunday’s area of expertise is structural engineering, and he uses the testing facilities at the College to carry out consultancy projects.
The Department’s testing laboratories are used for consultancy work around 20-30% of the time, although research projects take priority. Dr Popo-Ola uses the labs to test structures for a number of companies, including Corus.
Currently they’re testing metal decking for concrete structures that will reduce the volume of concrete needed. The decking requires rigorous load testing both under normal circumstances and extreme cases where the decking might come away from the concrete due to fire or structural damage.
The Department’s testing lab can easily cope with these tests and more. Alongside the load testing rig, various machines can test structures under compression and tension, impacts and even earthquake simulations.
The testing lab includes:
- Heavy scale testing frames
- Flumes and wave tanks
- Concrete durability labs
- Compression testing rigs
- Ring shear apparatus
- Random wave generators
- Triaxial testing equipment
