Utah's Lieutenant Governor Attends Engineering Dedication

Utah Lt. Gov. Gregory S. Bell congratulated a crowd of engineering luminaries gathered Sept. 24 for the dedication of two major new College of Engineering labs that will allow professors to conduct state-of-the-art research and help future engineers better understand the complex problems of bridge and dam deterioration and collapse.

After touring the new facilities, Bell told those gathered at the new Hydraulics Modeling Laboratory and Structural Testing Laboratory that the labs are further evidence that Utah State University is what he called “a remarkable gem and a jewel in the state.”

Bell made particular note of the fact that the facilities will provide a place for undergraduate students to work side-by-side with professors on applied research whose effects will be felt around the state, the nation and the world.

Noting that the Utah Water Research Laboratory has been a model for excellence in water research for 50 years, Bell said it is stirring to see first-hand the brilliance and skill of USU’s eminent faculty and students — both graduate and undergraduate.

“It is truly a privilege to stand here and begin to understand even just a little of what one of our great universities is doing,” he told the crowd.

The 11,000-square-foot Hydraulics Modeling Laboratory is an extension of the existing Utah Water Research Laboratory, in operation since 1965. The new lab will increase the number and scope of open channel hydraulics modeling projects possible at the UWRL, said Mac McKee, UWRL director.

Detailed large physical models of dams and spillways, as well as other hydraulic models, can be constructed and tested with an even larger possible flow rate than the existing hydraulics laboratory.

These new facilities will be in high demand from federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state and private organizations such as the Lower Colorado River Authority in Texas, McKee said. The first project to be constructed in the new facility is a model of the spillway located on the Tule River in California. This is a good example of the type of large physical modeling that will be conducted by professors Steven Barfus, William Rahmeyer, Michael Johnson and Blake Tullis in the new hydraulics laboratory.

Rahmeyer, department head of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said one of the major benefits of the new lab is that faculty and students can study flow problems that the typical small sizes of physical models are unable to duplicate.

“Very few laboratories in the world can study ‘large-sized physical’ models, so most labs have to then use either numerical models or small physical models that distort the model results,” Rahmeyer said. “This facility will help our researchers generate much more accurate data.”

The new 5,000-square-foot Structural Testing Laboratory will facilitate research and testing for the Long-Term Bridge Performance Program, a national study on bridge safety. It will provide much needed space to conduct research and testing for the Long-Term Bridge Performance Program, a national study on bridge safety. Professor Marv Halling, principal investigator on the project, and his co-investigators, professors Paul Barr and Kevin Womack, will use the lab to study the monitoring and inspection frequency of bridges in the western United States.

They will look at typical overpass bridges that commuters use every day. The high-quality quantitative data collected from the research and testing in the new lab will enable engineers to develop new and improved models. The data collected will enable engineers to develop new and improved models for bridges worldwide.

Related links:

Utah Water Research Laboratory

College of Engineering

Writer and contact: Tim Vitale, 435-797-1356, tim.vitale@usu.edu