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ARL:UT
IS LOCATED AT THE J. J. PICKLE RESEARCH CAMPUS (PRC) in
north Austin, about 10 miles from the main university campus.
PRC is home to about 20 laboratories and research centers,
including the Microelectronics Research Center, the Center
for Electromechanics, the Bureau of Economic Geology, and
the Institute for Advanced Technology. The University
is currently engaged in a planning process to expand PRC’s
role in both teaching and research. The PRC Commons includes
a dining service as well as gymnasium and exercise facilities
available to the staff.
ARL:UT MAINTAINS A VARIETY OF FACILITES TO SUPPORT THE
RESEARCH PROGRAMS. Those include a comprehensive
machine shop with several numerically
controlled machine tools,various instrumented
tanks and pressure vessels supporting the acoustics
and sonar programs,the Lake Travis Test Station,
where high resolution sonars are tested and calibrated,
an electromagnetics facility with satellite uplink capability,
andthe High Frequency High Resolution Receive Site
supporting HF radar, radio astronomy, and other electromagnetics
programs.
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ACOUSTIC TEST FACILITIES
Email: esdmail@arlut.utexas.edu
THE LAKE TRAVIS TEST STATION is located
at Lake Travis, about 18 miles from ARL:UT. This facility
provides year-round operations with multiple testing columns
that are separated by as much as 130 ft and which can support
transducers weighing up to 10,000 lbs. The calibration facility
is capable of performing standard calibrations using transducers
from 10 Hz-2 MHz for transmit and receive response, with
polar and rectangular patterns at up to .005 deg rotational
precision.
An 80 ft tower is mounted on the
lake bottom 170 yards from the test station provides
for free field longer range testing. The facility maintains
a variety of barges, boats, cranes, hoists, winches,
and generators as well as full diver support to handle
almost any testing requirement.
OTHER ACOUSTIC TESTING FACILITIES
LOCATED AT ARL:UT include a sonar model tank 12 ft deep
x 15 ft wide x 60 ft long with a full suite of instrumentation
for high frequency calibration and testing; a large fir
test tank 38 ft deep x 55 ft diam containing 700,000
gallons of filtered, ambient temperature water and augmented
with a 15-ton bridge crane; and a pressure testing facility
with
· two 1000
psi vessels: 2 ft diam x 9 ft deep, 8 ft 8 in. diam x
13 ft deep; a
· 3000 psi
vessel, 3 ft diam x 10 ft deep and a
· 5000 psi
vessel, 9 in. diam x 8 in. deep.
EACH OF THESE FACILITIES HAS PROVEN TIME
AND AGAIN the value of testing devices before taking them
to the field so that any flaw or weakness in the design
or manufacture of the device can be exposed and corrected,
potentially saving large amounts of project time and funds
that would be wasted by failures at sea.
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NETWORK & COMPUTING
SUPPORT FACILITIES
Email: its@arlut.utexas.edu
ARL:UT maintains HIGH PERFORMANCE NETWORKING AND COMPUTING
FACILITIES to support design and modeling, communications
tools, and the access to information necessary for state-of-the-art
research and development.
All scientists and engineers have
multiple gigabit-capable network connections in their offices
and laboratories. As needed, our researchers
can access a variety of high performance compute servers,
data servers, and information.
Facilities and services are provided by Information
Technology Services.
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PRECISION MACHINING
FACILITIES
Email: esdmail@arlut.utexas.edu
THE PRECISION MACHINING FACILITY
at ARL:UT contains multiple 4-axis machining centers including
a CNC turret lathe, two CNC horizontal mills, and a CNC vertical
mill. These are supplemented with several manual mills, lathes,
and presses. Augmenting these capabilities is a coordinate
measurement machine that assists the skilled staff of machinists
and technicians in verifying not only parts manufactured
in the ARL:UT facility but also those that were manufactured
by shops outside the facility. In-house welding capabilities,
including metal inert gas (M.I.G.), tungsten inert gas (T.I.G.),
stick, aluminum ac and dc, brass, steel, stainless, cast
iron, and titanium (collapsible purge chamber), are available
to support the manufacture of parts for a variety of materials
and project needs. Design engineers can use computerized
design schematics to provide inputs to the CNC machining
process, or they can simply provide drawings to produce the
needed parts. Metal finishing capability for conversion coating,
acid etching, and passivation round out the final finishing
of the end product. A 15-ton bridge crane spans the entire
shop area and enhances the efficiency and safety of shop
operations. The on-site machining capability and the close
working relationship between the engineers and the machinists
are key to cost-effective solving of problems that are inherent
in development of any complex mechanical device.
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RESEARCH
DIVE TEAM
Email: diveteam@arlut.utexas.edu
ARL:UT HAS A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH DIVE
TEAM (SRDT). The team is composed of scientists, engineers,
and technicians from the ARL:UT staff. The SRDT members
have a combined 165 years of research diving experience,
with each diver contributing a special set of skills and
capabilities. The team provides scientific diving support
365 days a year for underwater acoustic research and development
projects at the Lake Travis Test Station, the acoustic
test tanks located at ARL, and wherever else scientific
diving support is required. The SRDT can perform tasks
in environments with very limited visibility, high currents,
and depths greater than 130 feet.
The team can make detailed measurements and observations,
place and/or position objects in precise orientations,
and test and evaluate a wide range of equipment used in
the marine environment (e.g., hand-held sonars and acoustic
beacons used for underwater navigation). The SRDT also
has special capabilities in the areas of underwater photography
(digital and 35-mm film) and video documentation (recorded
and real-time), underwater communications (28.5 and 30
kHz, single side band), and remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
operations (two modified Phantom HD-2s depth rated to 1000
ft). The SRDT also provides general marine science support
and consultation for researchers both in-house and outside
agencies.
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Operational Support Services and Information
Technology Services groups are responsible for implementing
ARL's facilities and services.
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