LABORATORY

The Berkeley Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory is located in 2166 Etcheverry Hall in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. We have exclusive facilities for the processing, storage, and mechanical testing of bone, other musculoskeletal materials and bone-implant systems.

Materials testing facilities:

• Biaxial (axial-torsion) servohydraulic materials testing system (MTS, Eden Prairie, MN; Model 858 Mini-Bionix with TestStar Controller) with 5 mm and 1-inch gage length extensometers and various uniaxial and multiaxial load cells
• Miniature tension/compression loading substage with extended travel (Ernest F. Fullam Inc., Latham, NY; Models 18211, 1000lb) for use within a scanning electron microscope.

Bone processing facilities:

• HP FAXITRON X-ray machine, drill presses, band-saw, ultrasonic cleaner, vacuum degassing chamber, Buehler grinding stations, Isomet diamond saws, oven, furnace, numerous storage freezers, and a Mettler balance.

Light microscope facilities:

• Stereology and reflected light microscopes
• Continuous focus zoom microscope
• CCD camera-based image acquisition system, fully integrated with our computers, including IDL (Research Systems Inc., Boulder, CO) image analysis software
• ProLIGHT 2000 3-axis CNC milling machine for use with our serial-milling imaging system
• PULNiX TM-1001 high resolution CCD camera (1024x1024 resolution)

COMPUTERS

Our exclusive computational facilities for image processing and high-performance computation include:

High Performance Computers:

• Two-processor SGI Octane workstation with 1 GB of RAM and two graphics displays
• DEC Alpha 3000/600 workstation with 384 MB RAM
• Two DECstation 3000/LX workstations each with 96 MB RAM, with combined storage space of over 20 GB.
• Five Macintosh computers for statistical analysis, graphing, and word processing

Software:

• Truegrid and Abaqus for finite element analysis
• IDL for image processing
• SYSTAT for statistics
• Various packages for word processing, graph plotting, and slide preparation.

Backup/Hardcopy Devices:

• Two 5 GB tape drives
• CD-ROM writer
• Networked laser printer and a high resolution color printer

Other Resources:

• Connection to the campus network and the Internet via Ethernet connections
• Collaborations with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NPACI provide access to a 32-machine Dec Alpha Cluster and a Cray T3E massively parallel super computer for computationally intensive work.

OTHER

Various modes of electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and fourier-transform infrared [FTIR] spectroscopy are all available on the Berkeley campus. A GE 9800 Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT) scanning machine is available in the Department of Radiology, UC San Francisco.

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