Creating Innovative Laboratory Systems For Engineering & Technical Education

Petroleum Engineering

Producing oil and gas and other resources from the earth is the primary challenge of the petroleum engineer. Consequently, they must be proficient with the technologies that allow them to do so. What are you interested in?

Pumping, Automation & Process Logic Control?

Fluid Mechatronix

Do Petroleum Engineers get involved with pumping and process control? Absolutely! Amongst all the other things they do, petroleum engineers are involved with oil drilling activities, selecting and implementing recovery schemes, and designing surface collection and treatment facilities. Much of these activities require specific knowledge of pumping and its related process control capabilities. The FluidMechatronixTM Lab offers students the opportunity to learn how pumping works and how to apply that knowledge to various pumping process scenarios using signal feedback loops. They’ll observe and study the destructive phenomenon of Cavitation and learn how to minimize this energy and performance thief. With the on-board DAQ and LabViewTM generated Virtual Control Panel, students can actually observe in real time and report later in detail later on performance characteristics of specific pump impeller profiles and how they fare in particular flow process control scenarios. Students can even design and test their own impeller designs to see if they can improve upon the supplied profiles.