Research Facilities

Departmental Lab Facilities

Subsurface Flow and Transport Modeling Laboratory - resources include:

  • GMS, MODFLOW, and AQTESOLV analytical software.  On-campus operational well field (piezometers and pumped well) with data loggers and pressure transducers.  Sandtank models.
  • Bailers, well sampling equipment, water level measurement, sonic water level indicator.

Virtual Earth Research Facility - resources include:

  • Computer lab with PC workstations for 15 users with additional three Hess workstations (Shared with Subsurface Laboratory), with ArcGIS and ENVI software, a large format roll scanner and a large format ink jet plotter
  • Linux workstations for processing satellite-based radar data (InSAR)

    Subsurface Geology and Geological Engineering Laboratory - resources include:

    • Computer lab with PC workstations for 15 users with additional three Hess workstations (Shared with Virtual Earth), with the Schlumberger software packages: Eclipse, Petrel, PIPESIM, Techlog, and Ocean.  Three Baker Hughes workstations with JewelSuite Subsurface Modeling software.
      • Ground-penetrating radar, 24 channel seismic recorder, Proton precession magnetometer.
      • High-precision Core Analysis Apparatus (HPCA) for measuring gas permeability and porosity of rock cores.

      Geomechanics Laboratory - resources include:

      • Soil shear box, Roctest point load device, Schmidt hammers, rock-shear strength apparatus, and vibrating wire extensometers.  GCTS Triaxial Load Frame system with pulse-decay permeameter.
      • Mobile drilling rig (auger).
      • 3D photogrammetry system, 3D modeling system using a quad-copter, ground-based LiDAR scanner (Shared with Virtual Earth).

        High Performance Computing Laboratory

        The Numerical Modeling Research Team operates an externally-supported High Performance Computing laboratory that is specifically designed for parallel execution of Finite Element Model-based forward and inverse analyses of geophysical data.  Resources include:

        • Hephaestus: LINUX OS with 48-core CPU node, 196GB RAM, GPU node with 7 GPU cards, and 10x teraflop performance. Hephaestus resides in a hermetically-sealed vault with three-phase power conditioning and UPS backup. Software includes:
        • Heavy workstations equipped with 12-core CPUs, 96GB RAM, and GPU cards.
        • Software for Numerical Modeling includes:
           - Abaqus (finite element analysis)
           - IDL (General Purpose data analysis)
           - Rhino3D (industry-standard CAD)
           - Petrel (reservoir simulation)
           - ISCE (InSAR processing code from NASA JPL)

        Experimental Petrology Laboratory - resources include:

        • Two one-atmosphere quench and gas-mixing furnaces
        • Lindberg Platinum horizontal furnace and Lindberg box furnace
        • Mini torch/welding tool for capsules
        • Optical microscopes and imaging software
        • Sample processing lab with rock saws, rock crushers, and polishing wheels, 0.1mg scale

        Other Research Facilities On-Campus and Nearby

         

        Groundwater Flow Model Results

        Hydraulic Conductivity Modeling Using Geostatistics

         

         

        Experimental Petrology Lab

        Experimental Petrology Lab

         

        3D Photogrammetric Slope Model

        3D Photogrammetric Slope Model at Badlands National Park