Facilities
Patrick Caton
The interdisciplinary capstone design class has a dedicated space for the construction of prototypes or modifications of existing projects. This design studio has common construction materials (wood, metals, foam, PVC, etc), shop tools (saws, drill press, sander, etc), hand tools and assorted mechanisms.Jim Cowart
The Propulsion Lab and dynamometer cells are used to support EM300 - Principles of Propulsion, EM461 - Engines: Principles, Design and Applications, Thermal-Fluids Courses as well as faculty and midshipmen research. There are a variety of reciprocating and gas turbine engines mounted to dynamometers. There is also a wide variety of test equipment to support parametric studies and synthetic fuel research. Finally, there is a small machine shop used by the propulsion lab technicians to maintain the engines and fabricate educational and research equipment.
Cody Brownell
The Directed Energy Research Center (DERC) at the Naval Academy educates midshipmen in the physics and application of directed energy technologies, particularly high energy lasers, and facilitates joint midshipmen-faculty research on topics of interest. The laboratory has several IPG fiber lasers, beam characterization tools, scientific cameras, and standard optical benches with hardware for a variety of uses. There is also a satellite facility at Naval Academy Waterfront / Hendrix Lab for in-situ measurement of optical turbulence parameters across the Severn River. Ron Warzoha
The heat transfer laboratory is used in support of EM316 (Introduction to Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer), EM317 (Thermodynamics with Applications), and EM414 (Heat Transfer). This laboratory has benches equipped with heaters, hot and cold water lines with flow meters, fans, radiant sources and data acquisition to study steady state and transient conduction, radiant heating, heat sinks and heat exchangers.Peter Joyce
The mechanics, materials, and structures labs (MMS) support
a wide swath of courses across multiple departments. For
Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, we support mechanics and
design classes: EM222, EM223, EM228, EM328, and EM335,
materials science courses: EM312 and ER312, capstone
design: EX401, EX402, and a number of electives, including:
EM434 (Additive Manufacturing), EM436 (Introduction to
Composite Structures), EM456 (Corrosion and Corrosion
Control), EM476 (Vehicle Dynamics), and EM485 (Humanitarian Engineering).
The structures lab is highlighted by a large multi-purpose configurable test frame for structures
testing. The materials labs have a wide array of mechanical test equipment for materials
characterization. The metallography lab is outfitted with equipment for cutting, mounting, grinding,
and polishing materials specimens for inspection by microscopy. The microscopy lab is home to
optical microscopes both zoom and high magnification for microstructure inspection and fractography
for teaching and research. The corrosion lab supports many courses using a variety of salt/spray
immersion cabinets, slow strain rate testers, and other electrochemistry instruments. The composites
lab supports both teaching and research with a 4 foot diameter, 6 foot tube length aerospace-grade
autoclave, a 100 ton hydraulic press and a programmable mechanical convection oven for composites
manufacturing.
Luksa Luznik
The fluids laboratory is used in support of EM316 (Introduction to Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer) and EM324 (Fluid Mechanics). This laboratory contains table top units to study viscosity, momentum and hydrostatic forces. Larger units are used for the study of pipe flow and pumps. A small wind tunnel with a manometer and force balance demonstrates the concepts of lift and drag on objects. The students use a large tow tank facility for a similarity study and have access to larger wind tunnels if needed for independent research or capstone design.
Buddy Slager
MakerSpace USNA is a 3D printing laboratory space providing 3D printing capability for classroom and laboratory instruction as well as project support for students, faculty, and staff at USNA. The AM labs supports EM434 as well as Capstone and midshipman/faculty research.
Joey Latta
The Nucleonics Lab is a facility that contains a subcritical reactor, various radiation detectors, and ten different student computer workstations that are networked to an array of detectors and laboratory devices. The Nucleonics Lab also has a neutron generator housed in a shielded volume with associated computer systems and laboratory connections. In total the Nucleonics Lab has a wide assortment of major pieces of equipment (e.g. subcritical reactor and neutron generator), radiation detectors (e.g. gas filled detectors, scintillation detectors, and neutron detectors), dosimeters, computer workstations, radiation sources (e.g. photon sources, neutron sources, and alpha sources), and software packages, all of which are available for classroom, laboratory, and research use.