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Mechanical Testing, Structures, and Civil Engineering Laboratory (LEMSC)

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Picture credit : Aurore Delsoir - Yvan Flamant

Technical and scientific expertise

  • Characterisation of materials and structural elements
  • Design of special tests on the test floor (20x10 ~200 m²)
  • Measurement campaigns carried out by UCLouvain staff
  • Supervised access to characterisation infrastructure/equipment

Main equipment

  • Test floor with gantries and modular anchors
  • Seven hydraulic machines
  • Five static machines
  • Servo-hydraulic cylinders
  • Numerous sensors (displacements, accelerometers, load cells, etc.)
  • Cameras (digital imaging)
  • Ovens, furnaces
  • Hydraulic channels

Get an overview of the platform’s facilities via a virtual tour.

Applications

  • Mechanical tests on various materials (metal, composites for aeronautics, wood, prestressing, neoprene supports, relaxation, corrosion, geomaterials, etc.)
  • Tests on structures (railway equipment, mixed beams, wood-frame panels, reinforced concrete walls, etc.)
  • Hydraulic tests (sedimentation)

Services available to

  • UCLouvain students and researchers: mechanical test development assistance
  • Non-UCLouvain: offers of accredited standard tests and customised tests

  • 16 September 2024
    Offshore wind turbines: CREDEM and LEMSC provide support for installation studies
    These new giants of the seas, with blades that can reach heights of 300 metres above the water, can be installed in moderately deep waters, such as in the North Sea, using monopiles: hollow metal cylinders over 10 metres in diameter and 40 metres tall, weighing more than 1,000 tonnes, driven into the seabed to support the wind turbine mast.
  • 13 June 2023
    A hammock suspended above the water and at maximum distance from the bank: the LEMSC hosts the STRUCTURE CHALLENGE
    Calculating, building and testing a support structure for a suspended hammock... to allow a person to rest above the water, at maximum distance from the bank: this is the aim of the DEFI STRUCTURE.