About Us
The Special Structures Laboratory of CSIR-SERC is having a open floor area of 12.6m X 35.6m. The total height of the lab is 15.38m above ground level. It is having a strong test floor having anchorage holes at each 0.5m/1.0m intervals. The test floor is constructed as twin box RCC construction with access to the basement having an isolated RCC footings taken to 2.25m below ground level. The roof of the Laboratory consists of the state-of-the-art Brick Funicular Shell structure of 12.6m x 12m size with RC ribs at 1m interval. At present, the major facilities at Special Structures Laboratory include two Servo Hydraulic Acuators of M/s MTS make of capacity 250kN and 500kN, hydraulic cylindrical jacks of capacities upto 2000kN, 10Ton EOT crane, Load cell, 200 Tons reaction frames, 300T compression testing machine, 25kN highsensitive low capacity Universal Testing Machine, Reaction mass electrodynamic shakers, data acquisition systems, strain, displacement and vibration sensors etc.
The Nano-Infra Engineering Group of CSIR-SERC has the unique capability to work in interdisciplinary domain of engineering sciences and contribute to engineering technology. The central focus of the group is to work on mechanics of materials and structures. The research team is working at various length scales to understand the properties/responses of materials and structures/components. It will enable to develop materials linking response at various scales using Process- Structure- Property- Performance characteristics.
The research is focused on development of sustainable materials through engineering or tailoring the conventional materials at atomistic/nano level.
The group has the state-of-the-art facilities and expertise for carrying out both computational- and experimental- studies on the response of evolved materials and performance at structure level.
MTS Servo Hydraulic Structural Actuators along with controller and 50/100t Reaction frame
Special Structures Laboratory is equipped with two numbers MTS Servo-Hydraulic Structural Actuators (fitted with swivel at both and head and base) of 500 kN and 250 kN capacity having 250 mm total stroke. The actuators are fitted with dynamic load cells and LVDT’s to measure the load and stroke accurately. The actuators can be operated in force and displacement control mode to attain better accuracy of measurement for different types of tests on structural components.
3000kN Compression Testing Machine(CTM) for compression and flexural testing of structural elements
Compression Testing Machine (CTM) is used to test the compressive strength of the materials or structural elements. It helps to determine the behaviour of material under compressive load. The compressive strength for cubical and cylindrical specimen, split tensile strength for cylindrical specimen and flexural test for prismatic specimen can also be determined. The CTM installed at CSIR-SERC is the product of Microtest. Its compressive load capacity is 3000KN and flexural load capacity is 250KN. Since the machine is directly connected to the computer with software named SCM3000, it can be monitored and regulated using the same and both in load and displacement control mode, thus reducing the risk of using regulating and loading buttons in the machine. The deformation of the specimen at each point is recorded and its stress – strain behaviour of specimens can be obtained. This helps in determining the elastic limit, proportionality limit, yield point, yield strength and ultimate load. The load – deflection curve can also be retrieved directly from the CTM application in the computer to which the machine is connected. The fiber closing around the machine has also reduced the risk of causing accidents due to sudden failure of the materials/ specimen.
25kN Low capacity Universal Testing Machine (UTM) for micro-mechanical characterization of materials
Facility has been created for micro-mechanical characterisation of nano modified materials. For evaluation of nano/micro level mechanical characteristics of materials, exclusive experimental facility is developed. Towards this, high sensitive UTM with a capacity of 2.5 T has been installed. The facility is capable of evaluating the mechanical response parameters such as flexural strength, ductility, ultimate strain and fatigue behavior of engineered construction materials including cementitious composites which are highly brittle and heterogeneous, thus, makes the experimentation more complicated but challenging.
The group is equipped with wide range of state-of-the-art facilities for computational and experimental studies.The facilities are further expanding to meet the ever growing research demand.
- Fatigue rated UTM with capacity of 25 kN.
- Compression Testing Machine with a capacity of 3000kN
- Nanoindentation facility with environment chamber
- Surface preparation equipment for automatic cutting, polishing and impregnation of samples
- Acoustic emission and IR therographic equipment for structural health monitoring
- Isothermal calorimetry for measuring evolution of heat during cement hydration
- Rheometer for investigation of visco-elastic properties of cementitious composites
- Material Studio software for atomistic simulations
- Ultrasonic testing facility
- Digital Image Correlation setup
Ultrasonicator
Isothermal Calorimetry
Surface preparation facility
Acoustic emission set up
3D Laser Doppler Vibrometer
- A laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) is required to make non-contact measurements of vibration response from a structure. In Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), often many transducers are required for monitoring structures. This can be effectively avoided when non-contact measuring techniques are used. Thus, optical/laser based techniques are particularly attractive for both NDT and SHM applications.
- At CSIR-SERC, a state-of-the art facility is established for non-contact SHM of structures using full-field 3D vibration measurement at high frequencies. The same is equipped with 3 scanning heads (with high precision scanner) and scan angle of 50° x 40°. The DAQ with bandwidth of 25 MHz. The equipment can be used for noncontact health monitoring of structures made of metal, composites or concrete.
SHM using non-contact measurements
Aluminium plate without damage
Aluminium plate with damage
