Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering conducts research and provides research-based education at the highest international level within its subject areas. A common denominator for the division's research is to develop tools, methods and sustainable technical solutions for the benefit of the society.

About the Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Case studies, model experiments and fieldwork are largely supplemented by quantitative tools for analysis and simulation of observed data. In addition, the division develops software for various purposes, e.g. simulation of traffic, design of infrastructure, analysis of data from weather radar, automated identification of (micro) plastic, as well as control of wave basins and analysis of wave data. The developed software is available under different types of license and applied by e.g. research and educational institutions at home and abroad.

The division provides the teaching in engineering study programmes at the Department of the Built Environment and in other AAU departments.

The vast majority of the division's research activities are funded externally, and we have strong national and international collaborations with research institutions, private companies and the public sector. The research results are published primarily in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals and technical reports.

The division operates several well-equipped laboratories and field stations, which are used to perform experimental studies in lab, pilot and full scale.

Laboratories

at BUILD

Vores laboratorier er af international standard og bruges til forskning, undervisning og konsulentopgaver. The experimental approach to the research is characteristic to a number of the engineering disciplines with which we work.

State-of-the-art measurement equipment

With our state-of-the-art measurement equipment, we can measure systems and phenomena under completely controlled conditions.

Cooperation

We offer companies help to study specific problems and to collaborate on research and innovation.

Production

In our workshop, we can produce prototypes and measurement equipment ourselves for the laboratories and for field research.

Off-site research facilities

In addition to the laboratories at the department, we also have a number of off-site research facilities across the country that are also a part of our research and teaching.

Laboratories in the division

Ocean and Coastal Engineering

We research in waves and hydrodynamic modelling with specific focus on wave energy, offshore wind turbines and coastal engineering.

Chemical analysis

Our state-of-the-art equipment is used for analysis of environment samples and for quantification of heavy metals and xenobiotic organic connections in complex matrices. We analyse e.g. the chemical composition of gas samples, of pollutants in water, soil and sediment samples and of various building materials such as concrete and mortar.

Microplast

Our microplastics laboratory is equipped with two µFTIR imaging systems, an ATR-FTIR, a pyrolysis-GC-MS system, single particle ICP MS and various other instruments needed for microplastics analysis. The equipment provides the fastest scanning of microplastic available today, as well as the highest resolution currently attainable by FTIR technology. This infrastructure positions our lab amongst the world’s largest laboratories for analyzing microplastic in environmental matrixes.

Environmental Hydraulics

We can study stationary and non-stationary flows. In the 15 meters long tiltning flume, we can control both the slope and flow. In the recirculation flume, we can study both flows and particle behavior. In the laboratory, we have state-of-the-art measurement equipment such as LDA to measure flows.

Traffic Research

The laboratory includes measurement equipment and special programmes for collecting and processing of traffic data. Among other things, we have video cameras with hard drives and power supply, which enables long-term recordings of traffic flow, a radar used for 3-dimensional detection of traffic flow, portable magnetic traffic counters for vehicle counts and speed measurements at specific locations and computers with special software suitable for processing a large traffic data quantity.

Weather and climate observatory

We measure the climate – especially precipitation. The observatory has two X-band dual-pole weather radars; one in St. Restrup and one at Thomas Manns Vej, which each has a measurement range of 50 km. In addition, we have a number of laser disdrometers that can measure and classify the precipitation according to its physical state (snow, sleet, hail, rain, etc.) as well as drop size and speed. There are also a number of traditional tipping bucket rain gauges and 2 climate stations.

Virtual Flow

The laboratory consists of 35 individual workstations with 140 cores in total, which each can be used individually or together in a cluster, and is used to simulate flows in water and air. We calculate e.g. how combined sewer overflow works and how this can be improved and simulate e.g. wind movements through a city in order to evaluate the local wind climate around tall buildings.

Off-site research facilities

The sewer research station (Frejlev), the Stormwater research detention ponds (Låsby), the SUDS and stormwater detention research facility (Sønder Tranders), Aalborg Weather Radar (St. Restrup), the BEWARE facility in Aalborg for research of urban runoff from impermeable surfaces, Field stations for research on runoff from permeable surfaces (Lystrup)