Opened in 1994, the Composite Structures Laboratory has a 9 m (30 ft) high by 5.5 m (18 ft) wide reaction wall which is 0.61 m (2 ft) thick. The total floor area is 14.3 (47 ft) long by 7.2 m (23.5 ft) wide. The usable floor space in front of the reaction wall is 12.2 m (40 ft) long by 6.4 m (21 ft) wide. The strong floor is a 0.61 m (2 ft) thick reinforced concrete slab.

Additional Testing Equipment

These impressive laboratories would be of little use without the appropriate testing equipment, and the list of available equipment is extensive. This includes approximately 2,000 channels of data acquisition and signal conditioning, 29 servo controlled hydraulic actuators ranging in load capacity from 222.4 kN (50 kips) to 2224 kN (500 kips) and from 152.4 mm (6 inch) to 1219 mm (48 inch) in stroke capacity, hundreds of transducers including displacement transducers, rotation transducers, pressure transducers, strain gages, accelerometers and load cells. The actuators are operated by state of the art computerized controllers.