Laboratories and Centers

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering along with most of its facilities are housed in the Bechtel Building. The environmental and hydraulics laboratories are located on the third floor of the SRB building.

The Civil Engineering program maintains specialized teaching and research laboratories for environmental, geotechnical, hydraulics, and structural engineering. Equipment and instrumentation are also available to conduct investigations and surveys in transportation and surveying engineering. Computer facilities are available for student instruction and training. The laboratories are used for research purposes as well as to enhance teaching through hands-on experience in the various fields of civil and environmental engineering. Course projects and the final year project make effective use of the facilities. The Civil Engineering Laboratories are also reputed in the local professional engineering community for the reliable and prompt testing services they offer in the various specialties. The laboratories are serviced by specialized staff, with one full-time faculty member serving as the faculty supervisor to each facility.

Transportation Research Unit (TRU)
The Transportation Research Unit (TRU) is housed within the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut. Transportation is a broad field that has wide implications and interactions along several dimensions.Click here for more info. A Driving Simulator is included in this lab.

Structural and Materials Laboratory
[Lab Supervisor: Helmi El-Khatib; Faculty Supervisor: Bilal Hamad]
The Structural and Materials Laboratory occupies an area of about 550 square meters in Bechtel Building (Level 1), and is equipped with an array of instruments and tools that provide for the carrying out of a series of experiments. Undergraduate students use the lab to experiment with various construction materials to satisfy the requirements of the Construction Materials and Technologies course (CIVE 320). In addition, a number of other undergraduate and graduate courses make use of the laboratory in projects related to building structural systems and testing components (CIVE 620, CIVE 625, CIVE 721). Besides the state-of-the-art testing equipment such as the 100 Tons Dynamic Capacity MTS and the Tinius Olsen Universal Testing Machine, the department has equipment to perform Petrographic Analysis and has completed the construction of a Strong Floor- Reaction Wall facility that is used for dynamic testing. The latter facility includes a hydraulic power supply unit, two hydraulic actuators, and a data acquisition system. Such a facility is used by students and faculty in their research activities and has contributed to the improvement of undergraduate and graduate education in earthquake engineering. It allows graduate students to conduct research aimed at evaluating the seismic performance of structural systems and test a wider range of specimens with respect to size, type, and shape of structural elements. Other acquisitions also consist of a CBR Testing Machine used in the evaluation of the performance and stability of rock and asphalt mixes, a grinding machine used for concrete sample preparation, a Pile Integrity Meter used for the evaluation of pile soundness and material properties, and a Rapid Freeze-Thaw System used for testing the durability of construction materials.

Soil Mechanics Laboratory
[Lab Supervisor: Helmi El-Khatib; Faculty Supervisor: Salah Sadek]
The Soil Mechanics Laboratory occupies an area of about 275 square meters in Bechtel Building (Level 2). The lab houses various equipment that are necessary for performing the basic geotechnical tests and more advanced tests such as triaxial compression tests, direct shear tests, slope stability, and soil bearing capacity experiments. Laboratory work is required from undergraduate students, as part of Soil Mechanics and Laboratory course (CIVE 431), which introduces them to basic geotechnical principles and standard tests such as soil classification (sieve and hydrometer) and other soil properties (Atterberg limits, soil compaction, permeability, and consolidation). Sufficient equipment and space are available for performing tests simultaneously by several groups of students during one instructional lab session. Several foundation and soil behavior courses utilize the lab facilities for demonstrations or projects (CIVE 530, CIVE 630, CIVE 730). Other lab acquisitions consisted of Direct Shear and Triaxial Testing Machines with Data Acquisition Systems used for studying soil properties, and an X-Ray Diffraction System used as a non-destructive procedure for the characterization of solid materials.

Transportation and Surveying Facilities
[Facilities Supervisor: Helmi El-Khatib; Faculty Supervisor: Isam Kaysi]
The Transportation and Surveying equipment are stored in a dedicated space of about 30 square meters in Bechtel Building (Level 2), and are typically used on site. The various facilities include instruments used in the Surveying course (CIVE 360) in which laboratory work and field measurements comprise the majority of the course work. Sufficient surveying instruments are available for six crews to work in the field simultaneously. These include traditional transits, theodolites, total stations, and levels. Modern instruments such as EDM and GPS units are also available for group work and demonstration purposes. Part of the Transportation Engineering and Laboratory course (CIVE 461) is a set of laboratory sessions that are oriented at carrying out field surveys related to transportation issues. To achieve these objectives, the necessary equipment in the form of automatic counters and road detectors are made available to students. Such equipment is also used by students taking the Urban Transportation Planning (CIVE 661) and Traffic Engineering (CIVE 662) courses, as well as by graduate students conducting research work.

Environmental Engineering Research Center and Laboratories [EERC]
[Lab Supervisor: Lucy Semerjian; Center Director & Faculty Supervisor: George Ayoub]
The Environmental Engineering Research Center (EERC) and Laboratories occupy an area of about 300 square meters in the SRB. The environmental laboratories facilities are equipped to allow students to conduct experiments and research that can investigate chemical, physical, and biological contaminants associated with water, air, and solid wastes. The laboratories are furnished with benches and storage facilities, and supplied with glassware and various chemicals, as well as state-of-the-art equipment and analytical instruments. As part of the Water and Wastewater Treatment and Laboratory course (CIVE 450), undergraduate students are expected to conduct a series of experiments in which they are introduced to the methods of testing for basic water parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, water hardness, etc. Measurement of air pollutants such as SO2, CO, ozone and NOx is also an option for interested students. Package experimental setups are available to instruct students on various water treatment processes such as ion exchange, filterability index, reverse osmosis, settling columns, aerobic digestion, deep bed filters, sedimentation, aeration, flocculation (jar test), permeability, and fluidization. Many other undergraduate and graduate courses make use the lab facilities for demonstrations or projects (CIVE 351, CIVE 650, CIVE 651, and CIVE 753). The latest lab acquisitions, used in testing related to water and wastewater characterization, consisted of an Anaerobic Digestion Apparatus, an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, an Automatic Titration System, a Microwave Digestion unit, a UV/VIS Spectrophotometer, a Nitrogen Evaporator, a Total Carbon and Inorganic Carbon Analyzer, a Total Nitrogen Analysis System and an Oil and Grease Analyzer.

Solid Waste Management Laboratory
The Solid Waste Management laboratory occupies a space of about 60 square meters in the SRB. This facility accommodates several equipment related to solid waste management and treatment such as compactor, shredder, mixer, conveyor, etc., which can serve both demonstration and experimental purposes in courses and MS/PhD theses related to solid waste. In addition, several graduate students majoring in Environmental Sciences/Engineering make use of this facility for their temporary experimental setups related to solid waste management and treatment.

Hydraulics Laboratory
[Lab Supervisor: Helmi El-Khatib; Faculty Supervisor: Hamed Assaf]
The Hydraulics Laboratory occupies an area of about 120 square meters in the SRB. The facility houses the basic equipment used in standard experiments, such as channels, flumes, hydrology system, which are normally present in hydraulic laboratories. Laboratory experiments are offered as part of the two basic undergraduate courses, Fluid Mechanics and Laboratory (CIVE 340), and Hydraulics and Laboratory (CIVE 440). Besides laboratory demonstrations, students are divided into groups to perform preset standard hydraulic experiments. In addition to existing equipment, a Basic Hydraulic Bench with accessories and a Particle Drag Coefficients Measurement Instrument are used in the hydraulics and fluid mechanics lab sessions. Two other pieces of equipment, a Flow Pipe Network and an advanced Hydrology System with Instrumentation, are currently in use in the lab.

Water Resources Center
[Center Director: Mutasem El-Fadel]
The Water Resources Center (WRC) occupies and area of about 70 square meters in SRB. The center collects essential water resource studies to set up a national data management system. The interfaculty center provides a forum for information exchange and regional cooperation in rationalizing the planning and management of water resources in the region.