Computational and Experimental Facilities
COMPUTATIONAL FACILITIES
To aid research efforts involving supercomputing and advanced graphics, a high-speed network connects the Department to the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute (MSI) and the Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC).
The MSI is an interdisciplinary research program spanning all colleges of the University. The MSI supports and assists research carried out using the supercomputers. A number of AEM faculty members and graduate students spend time at MSI to have more direct access to these resources.
AEM faculty members and students play a major role in the research program of the AHPCRC which is funded by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory by a cooperative agreement and a contract. The AEM participation in the AHPCRC research program focuses on flow simulation and visualization and parallel computing. The primary mission of the AHPCRC is to support the Army in high performance computing, with emphasis on collaborations with Army researchers and training future scientists and engineers in high performance computing.
Under Air
Force Office of Scientific Research funding, the AEM Department operates
three clusters of high-performance workstations for microscale flow and materials science simulations. The clusters are composed of 16 Compaq Alpha XP1000 workstations, 48 dual-processor Pentium IIIs running at 1.0 GHz, and 72 dual-processor Pentium 4 Xeons running at 2.4 GHz. All three clusters are connected with high-bandwidth Myrinet networks.
The AEM Department has made a substantial
investment in small-scale computer facilities over the last few years.
Currently available to students in the department computer lab are numerous
Silicon Graphics and Intel based (running Linux)
workstations. These are all directly linked
to the campus network and global Internet. In addition, these computers share a
common file server which contains software packages to cover many applications.
High-quality laser printers are available for output of text and graphics as
well as a large format plotter for creating drawings of CAD models. For
instructional use, the Institute of
Technology provides several hundred additional workstations and
microcomputers which are also available with a large number of software
packages.
EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES
The Department has recently expanded its
laboratory facilities in all areas. Laboratories for studying the behavior of
solids are supervised by Professors James, Leo, and Shield. Professor James has
a Bridgman-Stockbarger crystal grower for production of shape-memory
alloys.
The microstructure of these phase-transforming materials is studied
using a one-of-a-kind biaxial tension test machine. The Surface Deformation
Interferometry and Composites Laboratory established by Professors Leo and
Shield contains a vibration-isolated Instron test frame for optical measurement
experiments. Interferometric methods of surface deformation measurements will
be used to examine the plastic strains around crack tips in single crystals and
shape-memory alloys.
Professors James and Shield also have a 1- tesla electromagnet for
studying magnetostrictive material behavior.
The
Aerospace Systems laboratory underwent a major renovation to support research
in software, enabled-control, formation flying of satellites, and UAV's.
Existing facilities include a flexible structure instrumented for experimental
studies in structural control. Faculty involved in this laboratory are
Professors Balas, Garrard, Mesbahi, and Zhao.
Several fluid mechanics laboratories accommodate research projects supervised by Professors Beavers, Joseph, Longmire, and Marusic. Flow facilities include wind tunnels, fluidized beds, channels and tanks for experiments involving water or liquid mixtures, jets, and a shock tube. Hot-wire and laser Doppler anemometers, high power lasers, extensive equipment for high- and low-speed video and still photography, and numerous computers are available for diagnostics. Specific experiments involve modeling, boundary-layer flows, separated flows, particle-laden flows, oil-water pipelines, and immiscible fluids.
The Department maintains an active machine shop
which contains, in addition to standard machines, a wire EDM and
computer-controlled mill.
The shop foreman and two machinists collaborate with students and
faculty members on the design of experimental facilities, apparatus, and
models. Three full-time staff scientists assist in setting up and maintaining
laboratory equipment and computer facilities.
Last Modified: 2007-07-24 at 10:09:29 -- this is in International Standard Date and Time Notation