Geotechnology, Soils and Materials Laboratory

Facilities

The Geotechnology, Soils and Materials laboratory is a teaching lab that has a SMART board to enhance instruction. This lab contains a complete set of testing equipment covering liquid limit, plastic limit, consolidation, direct shear and tri-axial testing. The lab also has two concrete cylinder crushers and all equipment to support testing of concrete mixes. Both the main Tyler campus and the Houston HEC campus have a geotech/materials lab.

The laboratory includes the following equipment:

• Data acquisition computers
• Tabletop Consolidation Apparatus
• TriFlex with data system -  triaxial test set
• Direct shear test apparatus
• Direct residual shear test set
• Hand operated compacting set
• Sand cone density set
• Mechanical analysis stirrer
• 20 liter stand mixer for soil sample homogenization
• Hygrometer analysis set
• ASTM liquid limit set
• Plastic limit set
• Sieve shaker motorized for 8" and 12" diameter sieves
• Electronic scales
• Unconfined compression machine
• Mechanical soil compactors
• Standard and modified proctor test apparatus
• Four ovens
• Field sampling equipment
• Auger and bore sampling kit

The Tyler lab is supported by the shaker room and the mixer room. The shaker room is used for separation of large aggregate and for sieve analysis in soils and materials labs. This room is equipped with heavy doors that allow for sound isolation from the shakers during labs. The mixer room is used for mixing of concrete and curing of cylinders and small beams. The materials used for the regional ASCE concrete canoe competition are also stored in the mixer room.