Research facilities

The Mechanical Testing Laboratory focuses on the mechanical behavior of constructions and the associated material behavior. Also involved is research on material structure, the basis of mechanical behavior, looking from nanometers up to meters. Equipment for material characterization (e.g. balances, indenters, tribo meters, tensile testers, DIC, rheometers), thermal characterization (TMA, calorimeter, infrared camera), optical and scanning electron microscopes, x-ray diffractometer and spectrometers. The participating research groups are working with divers materials, like rubber, plastics, metal, composite and biological materials. The experiments and equipment used for measurements for this research are joined in the Mechanical Testing Laboratory.

The department of Engineering Fluid Dynamics has access to various wind tunnels for aerodynamic and aeroacoustic research.

The ‘silent wind tunnel’ has an open test section measuring 0.9m x 0.7m in an anechoic chamber measuring 6m x6m x4m. With a maximum speed of 250 km/h, this tunnel is highly suited to measuring the aerodynamics and sound effects of wind turbine blades and applications relating to automotive technology (streamlining, sound effects of mirrors and spoilers, open roofs, etc.). Air flow can be visualized with smoke and videotechnology.

In the supersonic wind tunnel, speeds of up to 1.7 times the speed of sound can be achieved (circa 2,000 km/h). This wind tunnel is used for research on airflow instabilities caused by grooves in walls, the behaviour of a jet in a supersonic airflow and for validating theoretic models and calculation methods.

For more information: Prof. Kees Venner, tel 053 489 2488.

The Virtual Reality Lab is equipped with the latest technology for visualization and interaction. This is used to support decision-making in multidisciplinary design phases. The VR Lab is where you experience and assess future situations and products. The emphasis here is on visualizing the consequences of decisions. The facilities in the VR Lab will help to give an insight in mutual relationships and dependencies between various disciplines.

The VR Lab is put to intensive use in T-Xchange, the knowledge centre of the University of Twente and Thales. They use the lab for research into gaming systems and serious gaming and its use in solving social problems.

For more information, contact Roy Damgrave and Eric Lutters or visit the website.

High Tech Human Touch drives the University of Twente. The RPLab is no exception. Within the UT, there are loads of research projects with a need for fast, high-quality prototypes. The RPLab gives researchers and students the opportunity to create high-quality prints at low prices with a faster delivery time. Projects don’t have to buy their own printers, but can instead make use of the facilities within the RPLab.

For more information, you can contact Quint Meinders or visit the website. 

LILa, short for Living Innovation Lab, will provide a unique semi-controlled outdoor setting at the University of Twente campus. Its construction started in 2023, after its completion, it is going to function as a research, innovation and education lab to enable experimentation and support the development of new skills for students, researchers and professionals. Local communities and industrial partners will help connect this lab to the larger global ecosystems in which the UT collaborates.

The University of Twente has world-class facilities, where we work on ground-breaking research to make a positive impact, and improve the wellbeing of people through robotics. At the University of Twente, we have a variety of facilities enabling us to bring robotics to life. This includes labs specialised in Wearable Robotics, Surgical Robotics, and Soft Robotics. Visit the website for more information.