The Undergraduate Geotechnical Teaching Laboratory is named Frank E. Gerace Geotechnical Teaching Laboratory.
The Department of Civil Engineering operates an undergraduate geotechnical testing laboratory to conduct most routine ASTM and AASHTO tests, following their standardized procedures. The laboratory is used as part of the instruction included in the course ECIV330 (Soil Mechanics), taught to undergraduate junior students.
Students are required to conduct a total of 13 laboratory tests throughout the semester to determine soil properties, soil classification, hydraulic conductivity, flow net, deformation characteristics (consolidation) and soil strength (unconfined compression, direct shear, triaxial).
In addition, the laboratory contains a 1.2 m - diameter circular plate centrifuge. This device allows undergraduate students to be exposed to advanced soil modeling. Students are required to conduct tests and observe geotechnical structure behavior under a high gravity environment.