Facilities

The main facility of Columbia Gorge Research is located on a 1.6 acre site in Fairview, Oregon. An 1800 square foot building contains 900 square feet of office space and 900 square feet of laboratory. Additional storage and meeting facilities (about 1200 square feet) are contained in an adjacent building. A secondary 14 acre site is located in Sandy, Oregon that has been used to support high speed fiber grating sensor field tests, such as impacts on composite armor.

Special facilities at the main site include a 12 fiber cable that connects suites of fiber grating sensors located approximately 300 m away in the I-84 freeway to monitor traffic speed, weight, and axle spacing. A 20 foot steel bridge with concrete and composite sections instrumented with single and multi-axis fiber grating strain sensors. Damage states of the bridge can be adjusted by loosening or tightening bolts. A soil moisture greenhouse test facility with a fiber grating moisture sensor system embedded in soil to measure water content. Two 12 by 12 foot concrete and asphalt test beds that have embedded fiber grating strain sensors and can be used to support preliminary testing of fiber sensors intended for highway usage. SAE standard moisture calibration facilities suitable for use in air and oil environments, and a variety of pressure loaders with ranges from less than 0.01 psi to over 6000 psi.

Columbia Gorge Research has a wide variety of conventional and specialized optical fibers available to support testing in wavelength ranges from 620 nm to 1550 nm. Primarily these are single mode or polarization preserving fibers used to support interferometric or fiber grating sensor prototypes or test beds. Columbia Gorge Research primarily has worked with Corning, FiberCore, and NuFern on specialty fiber for fiber optic sensors although some fiber from 3M has been used as well. Light sources that are available include a variety of edge emitting diodes, super-radiant diodes, and laser diodes primarily in the 1300 and 1550 nm regime although some are in the 800 to 980 nm band. The ASE light sources of interest include a 17 dBm ASE gain flattened fiber light source from Lightwave2020 and a 10 dBm field portable ASE light source from Bay Spec. In addition, Columbia Gorge Research has all the optical components and detectors to support a dual channel high speed system for velocity, position, pressure, and temperature measurements. Other relevant facilities include a variety of fiber optic equipment, fusion splicer, optical power meter, and electrical and optical support equipment. Columbia Gorge Research also owns IMON 400 and IMON 512 spectrometers (400 and 512 element CCD based systems) for up to 400 Hz spectral measurements in the 1520 to 1590 nm band.

About Fairview, Oregon

There are many options for entertainment and dining near Fairview. Small shops along the old Columbia River Highway and wooded areas & waterways are just a few of the local attractions. The Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area is three miles to the west and downtown Portland is 12 miles east. Portland International Airport (PDX) is ten miles northwest.