Research Division – EMRTC
New Mexico Tech’s Energetic Materials Research & Testing Center (EMRTC) is a global leader in explosives research, safety, and training. At 40 square miles, EMRTC is the largest university-owned explosives testing facility in the world and serves as one of NMT’s key research divisions. Each year, it trains more than 17,000 first responders and conducts testing and research for both academic and industry partners.
This exhibit highlights Background Oriented Schlieren (BOS) imaging, an optical technique used by students in Mechanical Engineering in conjunction with EMRTC researchers. BOS allows scientists to visualize shockwaves, heat plumes, and other otherwise invisible airflows by comparing distortions in a patterned background.
The diagram on display, provided by the Mechanical Engineering Department, shows how BOS captures refractive index changes in air. The left panel depicts a printed speckle pattern refracted by a lens, while the right panel shows a post-processed BOS image of a hot air plume, revealing turbulence invisible to the human eye.
Hands-on projects like this let students apply aerospace, defense, and fluid dynamics principles using advanced imaging systems—illustrating how EMRTC and Mechanical Engineering collaborate to make the unseen visible.
Learn More:
EMRTC main page:
https://www.emrtc.nmt.edu/
Dr. Mier’s research paper on ‘Color gradient background‑oriented schlieren imaging’:
https://www.nmt.edu/academics/mecheng/faculty/mhargather/docs/Mier2016.pdf