EXPERIMENTAL ENGINEERING LABORATORIES
Roads Materials Laboratory.—The apparatus for tests of non-bituminous
road materials includes a two-cylinder Deval abrasion machine, a ball mill, a
moulding press for briquettes of rock dust, a Page impact cementation tester,
a Page impact toughness tester, a rock crusher and a Purdue brick rattler.
This outfit the University owes to the generous aid of the late Dr. Logan
Waller Page. In addition, the Department has acquired a 40,000-pound compression
tester, a diamond core drill, a diamond rock saw, a Westphal balance,
specific gravity apparatus, and a complete set of sieves. Useful researches in
the road-building rocks and gravels of Virginia, as well as the standard tests,
are conducted each year by the class in Civil Engineering.
The apparatus for tests of bituminous road materials includes the New
York Testing Laboratory penetrometer, the Kirschbaum ductility machine,
the Engler viscosimeter, the asphalt viscosimeter, Hubbard pyknometers, and
the accessory apparatus needed for research on bituminous road binders.
Structural Materials Laboratory.—The Sinclair Laboratory for work in
testing structural materials was founded on the original donation of Mrs. John
Sinclair, of New York City, as a memorial to her late husband. The collection
has since been considerably enlarged. It contains a 200,000-pound Olsen
universal testing machine equipped with extension arms for transverse tests
of beams; a 100,000-pound Olsen universal testing machine; a 100,000-pound
Riehle universal testing machine with attachments for autographic tests; an
Olsen torsion machine of 26,400 inch-pound capacity; two Hayes machines
and one Thompson machine for rotating beam fatigue tests; hand machines
for tensile tests of rods and wires and transverse tests of small metal and timber
specimens; and a Shore scleroscope. Accessory measuring instruments
included in the equipment are a Riehle extensometer; two Olsen strain gauge
extensometers; a Ewing extensometer; a Ewing combination extensometer
and compressometer; three Olsen wire extensometers; an Olsen compressometer
for metal specimens; an Olsen compressometer for timber; an Olsen
deflectometer; an Olsen troptometer; and an Amsler calibrating box of 200,000
pounds capacity.
Concrete Laboratory.—The laboratory is equipped with screens, sieves,
and all other apparatus necessary for mechanical analyses and other routine
tests of concrete aggregates. In addition there are specimen moulds of various
sizes and shapes for making specimens for compressive tests; bins for
moist storage; an Olsen compressometer for use on mortar cylinders up to
3-inch diameter; and an Olsen compressometer for tests of concrete cylinders
of 6-inch diameter. The testing machines in the Structural Materials
Laboratory furnish ample facilities for compressive tests and for transverse
tests of reinforced concrete beams.
Fuel and Oil Laboratory.—For the determination of the heating values of
fuels the laboratory has an Emerson bomb calorimeter and a gas calorimeter
of the Junkers type made by the American Meter Company and provided
with attachments for use with liquid fuels. The equipment also includes
two electric muffle furnaces; a Freas electric drying oven with automatic
temperature regulation; a sample crusher and grinder; a Brown high
resistance pyrometer; chemical balances and the required small equipment.
For testing lubricants there are Saybolt viscosimeters with automatic
bath temperature controls; Cleveland and Pensky-Martens flash and fire point
testers; hydrometers and pyknometers; Conradson carbon residue apparatus;
and A. S. T. M. standard cloud and pour point testers.
Hydraulics Laboratory.—The laboratory equipment for work in hydraulics
includes two motor-driven, two-stage, centrifugal pumps; two motor-driven,
single-stage, centrifugal pumps; a Pelton Wheel manufactured by the Pelton
Wheel Company expressly for laboratory use; a Rife hydraulic ram; a standpipe
arranged for tests of orifices in vertical and horizontal planes; orifices of
various sizes and types; a weir tank for tests of rectangular, trapezoidal, and
triangular weirs; three Venturi meters of different sizes; a Bailey orifice
meter; a Gurley current meter; a piping system arranged for measurement
of friction and shock losses in various sizes of commercial pipe and fittings;
manometers, weigh tanks, etc. The laboratory pumps provide an ample supply
of water for test purposes, at heads up to 500 feet, and in addition are arranged
for performance tests.
Power Laboratory.—The laboratory is designed and equipped to illustrate
the principles of Mechanical Engineering as applied to power plant and internal
combustion engine practice. It contains an oil-fired experimental boiler
with superheater, Sturtevant induced draft fan, Bailey feed water regulator,
and Worthington triplex boiler feed pump; a 75-Kw. General Electric turbo-generator
of modern design; a Westinghouse 25-Kw. turbo-generator; a
Wheeler surface condenser with steam jet air ejector for high vacuum work;
a smaller Wheeler surface condenser with wet vacuum pump for engine
tests; a Ball high-speed steam engine; a 12-Hp. Otto gasoline engine with
special additional piston and fuel valve for use with alcohol; a 12-Hp. White
and Middleton engine designed to use illuminating gas and convertible to
the use of liquid fuels; a General Electric 35-Kw. gasoline engine-generator
set; a motor-driven air compressor; a General Electric domestic-type oil
furnace arranged for tests; and all necessary testing equipment such as gauge
testers, indicators, planimeters, draft gauge, separating and throttling calorimeters,
Orsat apparatus, etc.
