The Laboratory for NDE and SHM studies is equipped with equipment to perform first class research and teaching in the area of ultrasound, infrared, thermography, and acoustic emission. The facility consists of about 950 square feet of dust-free space, which contains the state-of-the-art equipment of some of the most widely used NDE methods. The laboratory includes but it is not limited to:

  1. Acoustic Emission Instrumentation:

    One Physical Acoustics Corporation 4-cahnnel PCI/DSP system with waveform module including a notebook computer and AE-Win software; acoustic emission pico, WD, and S14 AE-transducers.

  2. Ultrasonic Testing Instrumentation:

    One Tektronix AFG3022 arbitrary function generator (2 output channels); one Lecroy Waverunner 44Xi 4-channels oscilloscope (with PC incorporated running under Windows XP); eight commercial broadband OlympusNDT-Panametrics Ultrasonic Transducers; one OlympusNDT-Panametrics high power (max 400 Volts) signal generator; several immersion transducers.

  3. Modal Testing Instrumentation:

    8-channel, line-powered, ICP® sensor signal conditioner; four 1/4 in. pre-polarized condenser microphone, free-field, 4 mV/Pa, 4 to 80k Hz (± 2 dB); Modally Tuned® Impulse Hammer w/force sensor and tips, 0 to 100 lbf, 50 mV/lbf (11.2 mV/N); one 086D80 Miniature Instrumented Impulse Hammer w/force tips, 0 to 50 lbf.

  4. Two National Instrument-PXI 1042Q:

    chassis with arbitrary function generator and multifunction Data Acquisition System

  5. Infrared Thermography equipment:

    We have one FLIR Infrared Camera (~8k value), one Infrared Video camera and accessories SLC400 (~50k value) for infrared thermography testing, and one FLIR lower end (~2k value) infrared camera.

  6. Optical testing equipment:

    One optical table, one Nd:YAG pulse laser, several posts, lenses, and tools to conduct high-precision optical and laser ultrasonics testing.

  7. Electromechanical Impedance:

    LCR meter, sensors, and general supplies to perform Electromechanical Impedance measurements

  8. Miscellaneous:

    Five acoustic microphones AT815b; seven personal computers, one laptop