Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics

Facilities

The Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics (NCG) has two major laboratories:

  • Soil mechanics laboratory - for testing ‘soft’ earth particulate materials, mainly soils and granular materials
  • Rock mechanics laboratory - for testing rocks together with materials used in the support of rock excavations

The two laboratories are the key elements to NCG, since geomechanics is a discipline highly dependent upon experimental investigations.

FacilitiesNCG
 
Equipped with a series of modern experimental facilities, the laboratories are responsible for supporting research activities, providing training for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and as a base for undertaking commercial testing and consultancy for industry.

Soil mechanics laboratory

Geotechnical centrifuge

 

GDS 10 kN/200 Nm hollow cylinder apparatus

 

GDS Dynamic Simple Shear System (DCSS)

 

GDS 100kN/64Mpa High pressure t riaxial testing system

 

GDS Advanced stress path triaxial testing system

 

GDS Large diameter cyclic triaxial testing syste

 

Dynamic triaxial testing system

 

CPT Truck

 

Rock mechanics laboratory

The laboratory has a long experience of rock sample testing, to ISRM standards, to measure all the principle strength parameters of rocks encountered in mining, tunneling, and quarrying. Samples are prepared as cubes, cylinders or to special geometries within the laboratory’s well equipped workshops, which includes a range of specialized coring rigs, diamond saws, and precision grinders. It has a wide range of compressive and tensile test machines from 20 tonne up to 500 tonne capacity, including:

RDP Howden 100 Tonne Servo-controlled stiff press

 

Avery 500 tonne compression test machine

 

20 Tonne denison universal testing machines

 

Creep test facility

 

Capability to perform full suite of ‘index’ tests on rock sample

 

A large radial core rig

 

Creep test facility

 

Capability to perform full suite of 'index' tests on rock sample

 

Rock sample preparation equipment

 

In addition, the following facilities are also available for teaching and research:

  • Torsional shear hollow cylinder
  • Standard teaching triaxial apparatus
  • McCrone micronising mill
  • Particle tensile strength machine
  • Rowe-type consolidometers
  • Resedimenting consolidometers
  • General data acquisition system
  • Casagrande cup and fall cones
  • Hydrometers
  • Sieving device
  • Permeability cells
  • Oedometers
  • Direct shear boxes
 

Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics

Faculty of Engineering
The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD



email:NCG@nottingham.ac.uk