Duke University campus at twilight

Research Facilities & Instrumentation

Duke MEMS provides faculty and students with state-of-the-art fabricating and testing technologies.

Through Duke's shared resource SMIF, our researchers have access to advanced cleanroom fabrication, characterization and imaging facilities.

A technician works in cleanroom fabrication at Duke University

Fabrication

3D Systems ProX DMP320
3D Systems ProX DMP320

Location: The Foundry, Gross Hall

Contact: Patrick McGuire patrick.mcguire@duke.edu

Description:

The 3D Systems ProX DMP320 machine is a high quality direct metal printing machine.  It is currently set up to print medical-grade titanium in a 275x275x 420mm build area, with a layer-by-layer additive powder melting process by laser.

M1 Additive Printer
M1 Additive Printer

Location: Polymer Printing Lab, Fitzpatrick Center (FCIEMAS)

Contact: Eric Stach eric.stach@duke.edu

Description:

The M1 by Carbon 3d is an additive printer that uses several different polymers. Its innovative process produces parts with material properties and finish similar to injection molding. The M1 prints using UV-curable resins which include: prototyping (similar to SLA with custom coloring), rigid polyurethane, flexible polyurethane, elastomeric polyurethane, and cyanate ester.

Stratasys Dimension 1200es and Fortus 250 Printers
Stratus and Fortus

Location: MEMS Prototype and Instrumentation Lab, Hudson Hall

Contact: Eric Stach eric.stach@duke.edu

Description:

The Stratasys Dimension 1200es and Fortus 250 printers are FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) style printers located in the MEMS Prototype and Instrumentation Lab in Hudson Hall. Reliable and repeatable technology builds parts out of ABS plastic in a 10x10x10-inch build area to a minimum resolution of 0.007 inch.

Testing

Bose ELF 3220
Bose ELF 3220

Location: Joint Mechanical Testing Laboratory, Medical Sciences Research Building

Contact: Patrick McGuire patrick.mcguire@duke.edu or
Eric Stach eric.stach@duke.edu

Description:

The Bose ELF 3220 extended stroke materials testing machine has a frictionless linear actuator suitable for high resolution, low-force testing, and an auxiliary long-stroke actuator mountable in the movable crosshead.  A hot/cold chamber may be mounted on the machine for testing in controlled temperature environments.

Test Resources 830LE-AT
Test Resources 830LE-AT

Location: Joint Mechanical Testing Laboratory, Medical Sciences Research Building

Contact: Patrick McGuire patrick.mcguire@duke.edu or
Eric Stach eric.stach@duke.edu

Description:

The Test Resources 830LE-AT is a biaxial fatigue-rated electrodynamic materials testing machine with an axial loading capacity of +/- 50 kN and torsion capacity of 280 N-m.  A complete range of accessories includes a temperature chamber allowing testing at temperatures ranging from -155 °C to 425° C, a temperature-controlled biobath, a wide range of grips and fixtures, and a digital video extensometer system.

Instron 1321
Instron 1321

Location: Joint Mechanical Testing Laboratory, Research Park 4

Contact: Patrick McGuire patrick.mcguire@duke.edu or
Eric Stach eric.stach@duke.edu

Description:

The Instron 1321 is a servohydraulic materials testing machine with tension and compression capacity of +/- 5kN.  A broad range of testing fixtures allows for standard materials testing and specialized biomechanical testing of bones, joints, and soft tissues.

Anechoic Chamber

Location: Room 029J, Hudson Hall

Contact: donald.bliss@duke.edu.

Description:

The Duke Anechoic Chamber offers an acoustically isolated testing facility with highly absorptive walls for students and faculty to use. The non-echoing properties of the chamber allow for direct field measurements, simulating free-space and thus minimizing the reverberant field found in real-world environments.

Dimensions: 9 x 12.5 x 7.5 feet.

Sound absorption is achieved through the soft foam wedges and thick dissipative foam located along the chamber wall. Incident acoustic waves become trapped within the porous foam structure and converted into small amounts of heat that then dissipate behind a blanket of condensed fiberglass. The absorption process is most efficient at higher frequencies while experiments have shown near anechoic properties down to around 300 Hz. 

The chamber at Duke is fully anechoic (absorptive floor) and features a mesh floor grating for supporting equipment. Threaded rods are conveniently mounted onto the ceiling for hanging sound sources that can rotate through a stepper motor adapter, allowing for the testing of speaker directivity patterns. Electrical outlets are located on all four side walls along with a small window for feeding cables outside the room.

Subsonic Wind Tunnel
Wind tunnel test section rendering

Location: Basement Level, Hudson Hall Annex

Contact: Patrick McGuire patrick.mcguire@duke.edu

Description:

The Duke Subsonic Wind Tunnel is an experimental apparatus used primarily for aerospace engineering research.

Dimensions: 20 feet tall, with a footprint of 40 feet by 10 feet. The test section of the wind tunnel, in which experimental models can be placed, is about 50 inches long and has a cross section of 20 inches by 28 inches. The air flow through the test section is driven by a 75 hp electric motor and can reach air speeds up to 60 m/s. A gust response excitation system is available.

Membrane ground vibration test
Membrane Ground Vibration

Data acquisition equipment: Air speed is measured by a pitot static tube and by a hot wire anemometer calibrated specifically for the range of air speed for this wind tunnel. Signals from the two instruments are collected by a National Instruments DAQ system, and read by LabVIEW software on the wind tunnel’s dedicated computer. In addition, the DAQ system has one 8-channel current input module, three 8-channel voltage input modules, and one 8-channel voltage output module.

Instruments for measuring experimental model motion include teardrop accelerometers, a laser velocity meter, pressure sensors and strain gauges. There is also a stand-alone spectrum analyzer that can acquire data and compute the frequency content and transfer function using onboard software.

Wind tunnel view from inside
Interior view

Projects have included aeroelastic response of morphing wing aircraft, determining flutter boundaries for flexible membranes with various boundary conditions, unsteady aerodynamic and buffet studies of airfoils at very high angles of attack, and experimental demonstration of limit cycle oscillation behavior for an airfoil supported by springs with a novel geometrically nonlinear design.

More information at aeroelasticity.pratt.duke.edu »

Cleanroom Fabrication, Characterization and Imaging

Duke Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility (SMIF)
SMIF logo

Location: Room 1593, Fitzpatrick Center

Website: smif.pratt.duke.edu

Description: An NSF-funded part of the National Nanotechnology Coordinating Infrastructure. The facility includes a cleanroom and instrumentation for electron-beam lithography, electron microscopy, MicroCT imaging, X-ray characterization and optical spectroscopy.