Laboratories Used by Architectural Engineering

Architectural Engineering Studio

The Architectural Engineering students take studio with architecture students so that they get an integrated view of architecture and engineering.  Architectural Engineering is a growing program. Funds for expansion have been donated by Warren Loranger, a Detroit Mercy Architectural Engineering alum.

Materials

The Materials Lab has equipment for making and testing concrete and asphalt. The concrete mixer is shared with the concrete canoe team.

The lab is equipped with superpave equipment for asphalt testing.

Non-Destructive Testing Lab (NDT)

Non-destructive testing is used on concrete and asphalt. It is most useful on existing facilities where you can't crush part of the structure to determine its strength. Instead the structure remains intact.

The results are analyzed to look for defects, determine material properties, and to provide information needed to design a repair.

Soils Lab

The Soils Lab has equipment for physical testing of soils to determine its strength, compressibility, and permeability.

The results are used in the design of foundations, earth retention systems, embankments and pavements.

Structures Lab

The Structures Lab is set up to a variety of strength checks on building materials such as steel, concrete, wood, asphalt, aluminum, and advanced composite materials. The testing devices, such as a Universal Testing Machine and the Instron, can apply tension, compression and shear loads on the materials. This is a vital task of quality control in construction.