A heat and humidity controlled walk-in environmental chamber is also available. The loop was initially developed to enable the measurement of moderate NaK flowrates using hot film anemometry. An electromagnet rated at 1.5 Tesla is used in the test section. The primary facility is a 5'x3'x3' water tank, with precision equipment for positioning source and receiver, for computer-controlled measurements in the megahertz frequency region. Also available are apparatus for investigating intense airborne sound in a waveguide and for producing high-intensity acoustic shock pulses.
Applications are to physical acoustics, underwater acoustics, and biomedical ultrasound.
Additional facilities are available at the Applied Research Laboratories, Pickle Research Center. In addition, the roof of the building has been designed to permit mounting a variety of experiments for solar research and instruction. We are in the eleventh year of developing a long term solar data base for Central Texas, andare currently establishing a network of solar monitoring stations across Texas which will be accessed from the Solar Energy Laboratory. These apparatus are used for both graduate research and graduate and undergraduate instruction. Turbulence and Turbine Cooling Research Laboratory Facilities within this laboratory include a turbulent flow structures research water channel, a vortex research water channel, and two closed-loop wind tunnels for turbulence and convective heat transfer studies.