Stevin Lab
Stevin-II (macro- en microlaboratorium)
The Stevin lab consists of a Macro and Micro lab. The Stevin-II lab carries out experimental research mainly in engineering materials and structures for a wide range of engineering fields. Its unique facilities enable researchers to conduct research at multi scale level from small scale material level to full-scale component and structural level. Also, research on innovative recycling techniques is carried out, preparing for a fully circular engineering sector. In the Stevin lab materials and structures are tested in representative environmental conditions to allow rapid implementation of the tested solutions to industry.
Infrastructure and User Services
The key characteristic of the Stevin laboratory is the testing of engineering materials and structures across the scales. To this end, the Stevin lab has a devoted testing space including high-bearing capacity floors on which structures can be mounted and subjected to both static and dynamic loads up to 10.000 kN. The 10-ton overhead cranes facilitate testing of structures up to 40 m long, 20 m wide and 8.5 m high. On the other end of the scale the Stevin lab has a micromechanical laboratory. This microlab enables testing of materials and material behavior on nano to microscale, with i.e. ESEM and nano-indentation. Additionally, the Stevin lab has climate-controlled rooms, a drying room, a workshop for preparing specialized concretes and bituminous specimens. Recent additions to the facilities include the hexapod and ice-rooms. The ice-rooms provide crucial input for offshore wind application in regions where lakes or the sea occasionally freeze. The laboratory also has specialized equipment to test asphalt pavements as well as railways and the Circular Engineering Lab (CEL), which facilitates large-scale experiments on newly designed high-end recycling processes.
The Stevin-II lab is fitted with several unique equipment and in-house developed software to design, build and conduct unique measurement campaigns ranging from material level to component and structural level for multiple engineering fields. One example is the hexapod, this is a multiaxial test device for fatigue, ultimate strength and dynamic tests its maximum frequency of 30 Hz allows it to simulate lifetime of a structure in a few weeks.
Examples/description of the type of research
The kind of research facilitated in the Stevin lab consists of material characterization in the Microlab, using for example ESEM or nano-indentation and mechanical tests determining strength, stiffness and rheological properties on specimens varying in size from several millimeters to tens of meters. These tests can consist of response, failure or fatigue tests using load levels varying from a few Newtons to Mega Newtons and loading rates and frequencies from millimeters per minute to km/h, and from 0,1-30 Hz for large specimens.
Some recent, concrete examples of the typical across-the-scales research that involves various facilities in the Stevin lab, showing the combination of experiments and modelling used are:
- development of test methods for asphalt pavement of steel bridges, including the testing of adhesion in the lab, which was used in models that were validated in full scale LINTRACK tests,
- concrete material and structural testing used to predict the structural capacity of concrete bridge girders, which is validated by testing actual girders
- the effect of induced earthquakes on unreinforced masonry buildings through experiments at structural, component and material level combined with validation of models for the assessment and retrofitting of existing buildings
How to access the infrastructure?
The Stevin-II is a physical lab so access to people can only be physical. To the equipment you can access via software with a password and only authorized users are allowed to log into the systems. The authorization can only be done by the lab technician and vary per experimental test.