Convection and Environmental Laboratories
The Convection and Environmental Laboratories are both home to advanced facilities assisting research related to convective flows, thermal engineering and environmental modelling.
Convection Laboratory
Our Convection Laboratory consists of two purpose-built laboratories, each constructed with insulated wall panels and air conditioning to provide a thermally-stable environment.
It is equipped with a variety of experimental rigs ranging from large and small side-heated convection experiments, thermal boundary layer transition experiments, sloping bottom tanks for reservoir related projects, and building thermal control and natural ventilation experiments.
Major facilities in the Convection Laboratory include:
- concurrent or independent particle image velocimetry (PIV) and laser induced fluorescence (LIF) for flow and temperature field visualisation and measurement
- particle image thermometry (PIT) for temperature field visualisation and measurement
- Shadowgraph and Schlieren for temperature field visualisation and measurement
- open and enclosed cavity models of various configurations over a range of scales
- a range of thermistors, thermocouples and other ancillary measurement facilities.
Environmental Laboratory
The Environmental Laboratory is comprised of several facilities to assist with suspended matter analysis, microbiological studies, chemical analysis and computational tools.
The settling column is an innovative facility to study the dynamics of suspended particle matter in water. Sediment can be mixed with an oscillating grid to allow control of the turbulence shear rate. Sediment concentration and oscillation frequency can be controlled, as well as the temperature. The column can be used with non-cohesive and cohesive particles, and with mineral and organic compounds.
The Environmental Laboratory is equipped with facilities suitable for mesocosm and microcosm experiments involving low-risk naturally occurring microorganisms, including inverted light microscope, automated cell counter, autoclave, incubator, and humidity- and temperature-controlled plant growth chamber.
Chemical analysis of samples can be conducted within the Environmental Laboratory through spectrophotometry. It is equipped with a spectrophotometer and a microplate reader, which allows for ELISA testing. A water quality meter is available for automated and continuous measurements of 11 parameters including, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, salinity, total dissolved solids, and ammonium, nitrate and chloride ions.
BRTSim is an extraordinary computational tool in soil physics and biogeochemistry, soil and water quality assessment and prediction, soil bio-and phyto-remediation potential estimation, and in all environmental engineering contexts where physical, chemical and biological processes co-exist and affect each other with complex nonlinear feedbacks.