Watkins-Haggart Structural Engineering Laboratory
About the Lab
Laboratory Director: Kent A. Harries, PhD, FACI, P.Eng.
The Watkins-Haggart Structural Engineering Laboratory is the facility at the heart of the experimental structural engineering research efforts at the University of Pittsburgh. This unique facility is located in the sub-basement of Benedum Hall on the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland. The Lab is a 4000 square foot high-bay testing facility with a massive reaction floor. The high-bay testing area is serviced by a 10 ton radio controlled bridge crane and other heavy material handling equipment.
Since 2004, the laboratory has specialized in conducting large scale fatigue testing at load ranges up to 50,000 pounds. To date, fatigue tests totaling over 100 million load cycles have been conducted. The largest tests conducted by the Watkins-Haggart lab team where the 2006 tests of a pair of 90 foot long, 70 ton long prestressed girders recovered from the collapsed Lake View Drive Bridge.
As a compliment to the reaction floor, the Lab also has an extremely versatile self-contained reaction frame. Loading for full-scale testing is provided by servo-controlled hydraulic actuators whose capacities range from a few hundred pounds up to 300,000 pounds. The actuators are controlled by state-of-the-art MTS digital closed-loop servo-hydraulic control systems and hydraulic power is supplied by two 60 gpm 3000 psi hydraulic power units. The Laboratory is also home to three universal test machines: a) 20,000 lb capacity with hydraulic grips; b) 200,000 lb having a 6 foot clear opening; and c) 300,000 lb having a 14 foot opening. Two concrete cylinder test machines having capacities of 250,000 and 500,000 lbs are also available. The laboratory has a number of computer controlled data acquisition systems that allow for the automated reading and recording of over 130 discrete channels of instrumentation. The lab has full-scale nondestructive evaluation equipment and field-testing equipment suitable for a variety of in situ test programs.
