VISIT ERDC STATE-OF-THE ART FACILITIES AND CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGIES U . S . A r my E n g i n e e r R e s e a r c h a n d D e v e l o p me n t C e n t e r
ABOUT ERDC The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center helps solve our nation’s most challenging problems in civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, water resources, and environmental sciences for the Army, Department of Defense, civilian agencies, and our Nation’s public good. ERDC operates more than $1 billion in world class facilities at seven labs located in four states with more than 2,100 employees to administer an annual research program exceeding $1 billion. Our facilities range from the world’s fastest supercomputers to one-of-a-kind physical models. We host one of six Department of Defense High Performance Computing Centers. The center's Cray XC40 and HPE ICE X supercomputers are some of the most powerful and fastest in the world, with a capability that exceeds 15 quadrillion calculations per second. Other unique facilities include the world’s most powerful centrifuge, blast effects facilities, physical models of river and coastal projects, endangered species laboratories, heavy vehicle simulators, hazardous waste research laboratories, frost and ice engineering facilities, an earthquake simulator, and an 1,800-foot coastal research pier.
VISIT ERDC Top 11 Places to See 01. C oastal and Hydraulics Laboratory
Vicksburg, MS
02. E nvironmental Laboratory
Vicksburg, MS 03. G eotechnical and Structures Laboratory
Vicksburg, MS 04. Information Technology Laboratory
Vicksburg, MS 05. C onstruction Engineering Research Laboratory
Champaign, IL
06. C old Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
Hanover, NH
07. G eospatial Research Laboratory
Alexandria, VA 08. Field Research Facility
Duck, NC 09. Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility
Fairbanks, AK 10. Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility
Lewisville, TX
11. Treat Island Natural Weather Station
Eastport, ME
COASTAL AND HYDRAULICS LABORATORY FOCUS AREAS: Inland and coastal navigation Military engineering and logistics over the shore Dredging, flood control, storm and erosion protection Waterway restoration and fish passage Hydro-environmental modeling Water/land management
WHAT TO SEE: Physical facilities total 1.5 million square feet and provide the necessary infrastructure to produce cutting-edge products ranging from design guidance to three-dimensional numerical models. A $3 million state-of-the art Ship Simulator Complex was completed in fiscal year 2012 and boasts three fullmission simulators for navigation studies, each with the capability to simulate ships, tows and small crafts. The Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) is also home to some of the largest navigation and coastal physical models in the world.
Mississippi
Mississippi
ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORY FOCUS AREAS:
WHAT TO SEE:
Aquatic Ecology an d Invasive Species
Facilities at the Environmental Laboratory (EL) enable a
Ecological Resource s
wide variety of environmental research that includes the
Environmental Systems
Aquatic and Wetlands Ecosystems Research and
Wetlands and Coastal Ecology
Development Center, Center for Contaminated Sediments,
Environmental Chemistry, Engineering and
Environmental Genomics and Conservation Genetics
Processes
Laboratory, Environmental Toxicology Research Facility,
Environmental Risk Assessment
Geospatial Data Analysis Facility, Hazardous Waste
Water Quality and Contaminant Modeling
Research Center, and Sediment Research Laboratory .
GEOTECHNICAL AND STRUCTURES LABORATORY FOCUS AREAS: Force Projection / Maneuver Support Force Protection/Weapons Effects Civil Works/In fr astructure Operational Support/Technolog y Transfer
WHAT TO SEE: GSL operates a number of unique laboratory and research facilities, including the world's most powerful centrifuge dedicated to engineering and scientific research and the DOD's lead pavements research facility for roadways, permanent airfields, contingency airfields, and railroads. Other facilities to see include Blast Forensics Laboratory, Blast Load Simulator, Materials Testing Center, Projectile Penetration Research Facility, and Target Preparation Facilities.
Mississippi
Mississippi
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
FOCUS AREAS:
Software Engineering and Informatics Computational Science and Engineering Scientific Computing
WHAT TO SEE:
ITL provides high-performance computing approaches to scientific discovery, operating a number of technology and computer resource centers. ITL is home to the DOD Supercomputing Resource Center, the HPC-RDT&E Shelter, Joint Computing Facility, CAD/BIM Technology Center and the Data Analysis and Assessment Center.
CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING RESEARCH LABORATORY FOCUS AREAS: Sustain able Installations Military Ranges and Lands Resilient Facilities and In fr astructure Smart Sustainable Materials Installation Decision Support Urban and Stabilit y Operations
WHAT TO SEE: To meet its research challenges, CERL has state-of-the-art test facilities that include: Triaxial Earthquake and Shock Simulator; Paint Technology Center; Controlled Archeological Test Site; Environmental Processes Laboratory; Microbiology Laboratory; Structural Load Floor; Air Pollution Laboratory; Proton Exchange
Illinois
Membrane Fuel Cell with Electrolyzer; Environmental Chemistry Laboratory; Chem-Bio Laboratory; Materials Laboratory; Center for the Advancement of Sustainability Innovations; and Synthetic Biology Laboratory; ERDC Forward Oper ating Base Laboratory .
COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LABORATORY FOCUS AREAS: Operation al Impacts of Extreme Weather Environments Performance Predictions of Critical In fr astructure in Cold Regions Ice, Snow and Soil Properties, Behavior, Mechanics and Distribution Geotechnical Permafrost Enginee ring Material Engineering for Cold Regions
WHAT TO SEE: Unique cold research facilities include: Cold Room Complex, Frost Effects Research Facility, Ice Engineering Facility and a variety of special-purpose ice test facilities and low temperature mater ials laboratories .
New Hampshire
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen Gets Up Close with Cold Regions Research
GEOSPATIAL RESEARCH LABORATORY
WHAT TO SEE:
FOCUS AREAS: Human Geography Geo-Enabled Computing Environments Geospatial In telligence
Virginia
The facilities at GRL provide exciting resources for developing current and emerging geospatial technologies which include the Army Geospatial Enterprise Node, Geospatial Sensing and Photonics Laboratory, and Fluorescence Lab.
FIELD RESEARCH FACILITY BENEFITS: The FRF located in Duck, North Carolina, was established in 1977 to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' coastal engineering mission. The FRF is recognized as a premier location for coastal field studies. Central to the FRF is a 560-meters-long steel and concrete research pier that extends to the approximately 7 meters water de p th contour . FRF research into weather, waves, currents, tides and beach change has had international impact. Coastal Research Amphibious Buggy measurements have defined how beach and nearshore sand bars respond to seasonal and storm changes. Highly resolved wave information has provided new knowledge of the major forces that affect our coasts. Sediment transport data gathered during storms has revealed the strengths and weaknesses of our beach erosion prediction capabilities. These results and those of hundreds of investigators that have experimented at the FRF are used throughout the world.
North Carolina
PERMAFROST TUNNEL RESEARCH FACILITY BENEFITS: Established in 1968, the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility, located in Fox, Alaska, is part of ERDC's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory that provides researchers, scientists, and students with a unique source of data in a natural laboratory. The facility is available to assist engineers and scientists in their study of warm, ice-rich, fine-grained permafrost in situ – allowing time for detailed research and sampling. The tunnel was excavated into a silt escarpment that illuminates 45,000 years of details about the soil, including organics, bacteria, and bones froze n in p lace. The challenge for permafrost engineers is to design long lasting infrastructure on permafrost at low cost. Here, engineers have the ability to test the mechanical properties and deformation sensitivity of these ice-rich soils, and also test methods for detecting ice content of permafrost with geophysical techniques.
Alaska
LEWISVILLE AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH FACILITY (LAERF)
BENEFITS: Research on aquatic plant species is necessary to determine the best strategies to control nuisance aquatic plants. Located in Lewisville, Texas, the Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility (LAERF) is an experimental facility that has supported research on biology, ecology and management of aquatic plants for more than 20 years. LAERF provides 53 earthen ponds, 21 lined ponds, 18 flow-through water raceways, mesocosm systems, research greenhouses, and several on-site laboratories for aquatic ecosystem research. The LAERF provides an intermediate-scale research environment to bridge the gap between small-scale laboratory studies and large-scale field tests, providing opportunities to evaluate a variety of spatial and temporal scales. The ability to control and monitor water levels, inputs and outputs under replicated conditions makes the LAERF ideally suited for conducting process-oriented aquatic ecosystem and wetland studies.
Texas
TREAT ISLAND NATURAL WEATHER STATION BENEFITS: ERDC's Treat Island Natural Weather Station is located on the Bay of Fundy, near Eastport, the most eastern city in the U.S. The station is a long-term natural weathering facility that has been in continuous use since 1936 to study concrete durability. The facility's geogra p hical location natur ally imposes a combination of severe environmental conditions to include tide levels that vary by as much as 22 feet. Temperatures during the coldest part of the winter range from minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit to 37 degrees Fahrenheit, making this site a perfect place to test marine-type conditions on materials such as concrete. Cyclic inundation of saltwater and air-drying also simultaneously subject test specimens to chloride intrusion, wetting and drying, and abrasion-erosion. Over 40 active research programs are currently under way.
Maine
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Contact Dr. Caitlyn McGuire, Director of Legislative & Government Affairs, to schedule your visit today. Caitlyn.M.Mcguire@usace.army.mil (703) 712-6777
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