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.
Fabrication
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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)
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.