The Structural Engineering Laboratory in the department of Civil Engineering at IIT Guwahati is one the best structural engineering laboratories currently existing in India. The laboratory serves a wide spectrum of activities covering those related to teaching, research, development, and consultancy. The primary activities include ambient vibration studies, experimental studies on model/prototype of structural elements and assemblies under various static and dynamic loading conditions. The Structural Engineering Laboratory also offers technical services for testing and research on the structural behavior and properties of materials.
The laboratory is equipped with servo-controlled hydraulic MTS actuators (100T, 25T, and 10T compression capacity) and required data acquisition systems, which are used for cyclic testing of reinforced concrete and steel specimens. A uniaxial shake table of 5T vertical load carrying capacity, maximum stroke of 500 mm, and maximum horizontal acceleration of 2g is also available in the laboratory for simulating actual ground motions to understand the behavior of structures under dynamic loading. Other major equipments include a 100T electronic UTM, a 200T CTM, Servo-control hydraulic jacks, LVDTs, Electrical strain gauges, accelerometers, etc.
Sophisticated equipments to perform Non-destructive tests like Ultrasonic pulse wave, Rebound hammer, Permeability, Half-cell potential, Resistivity, Potentiometric Titrator, Resonant frequency, Digital pH meter, Rebar locator, etc are also available and used extensively in various activities. The concrete laboratory, which is also a part of structural engineering laboratory, is equipped with all the equipments required for moderate-scale manufacturing and testing of specimens. Following figures show some of the facilities available in the structural engineering laboratory.
The department has procured various state-of-the-art software required for Linear and Nonlinear Analysis of Structures (SAP2000, ABAQUS, ANSYS), Project Planning, Scheduling, Project Control (PRIMAVERA).
