Facilities & equipment

World-class environments allow for world-class work to thrive, and we are home to some of the best!

We are one of the only organisations in the Oceania region with large-scale laboratory spaces and expertise to provide commercial physical modelling services for our clients. Whether we are working in the catchment, on the water or at the beach, we have the specialist equipment and knowledge to collect real-world data and analyse it to solve real-world problems

06m-wave-flume
0.6 m wave flume
The 0.6 m wave/sediment transport flume measures approximately 40 m in length, 0.6 m in width, and 0.9 m in depth. The walls are panelled along the flume length in glass, allowing complete observation of tests... More
0.9 m wave and open channel flume UNSWWRL
0.9 m wave and open channel flume
The Water Research Laboratory’s 0.9 m wave flume measures approximately 36 m in length, 0.9 m in width, and 1.6 m in depth. The flume walls are primarily constructed of brick, with a large glass panelled section where models are constructed, allowing visual observations to be made throughout testing... More
1.2 m Wave Flume 1
1.2 m wave flume
In 2015 WRL opened the largest and most sophisticated 2D wave flume facility in the Australia/Pacific region, reaching 44 m in length, 1.2 m in width and 1.6 m in depth... More
3 m flume 2
3 m wave flume
The 3 m wave flume is one of the largest flumes in Australia. It is 32 m long by 3 m wide by 1.3 m deep, and can be used to undertake quasi 3D tests of structures such as breakwater heads at large scale... More
Chemistry Laboratory 2
Chemistry laboratory
WRL operates a fully equipped chemical laboratory which enables it to undertake sample preparation, separation and preservation of water, effluent, soil and sediment samples... More
WRL-Coastal-Imaging_0
Coastal imaging
WRL offers a range of coastal imaging services for remote measurement of the coastal zone. This involves the monitoring (video imaging) and quantitative analysis of several kilometres of coastline at a high resolution in time and space... More
Groundwater field equipment 1
Groundwater field equipment
WRL has extensive field equipment for use in groundwater investigations; with a multitude of tools to aid in: bore design, aquifer delineation and testing, acid sulfate soil investigation, drilling and hydro-stratigraphic profiling, down-hole geophysical investigation, electrical imaging, resistivity imaging and groundwater quality testing... More
Prop-wash basin UNSWWRL
Prop-wash basin
The Water Research Laboratory has recently opened a dedicated prop-wash facility for the physical modelling of the effects of ship side thruster forces and vessel propeller wash on port and coastal infrastructure... More
Soils laboratory
Soils laboratory
Soil and sediment samples are often collected in the field for a variety of projects. WRL operates a soils laboratory for the processing and analysis of these samples... More
2017 Spillway flume
Spillway flume
WRL’s spillway facility is a unique open channel flow facility allowing continuous uncontrolled and gated spillway experiments with large flow rates. .. More
Survey equipment 1
Survey equipment
WRL has a Trimble 5800 Real Time Kinematic Differential GPS (RTK-DGPS) which uses information from satellites to determine horizontal and vertical positions with centimetre accuracy as you survey... More
UAV 1
UAV/drone surveying
WRL has developed the expertise, qualifications and equipment range to now provide a professional UAV monitoring service for a wide range of engineering and scientific applications... More
Wave basin 1
Wave basin
The wave basin measures approximately 29 m in length, 16 m in width, and 0.7 m in depth; and is used for large-scale 3D physical modelling... More