bnr-laboratory-services_2025
  1. We are WSP
  2. What we do
  3. Services
  4. Field and laboratory testing services

Field and laboratory testing services

With a network of National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited laboratories in Australia, supported by the technical expertise of our consultants, we bring decades of experience in providing specialised field and laboratory testing services to our clients.

Testing services

 

Natural and man-made emissions in the air can affect visibility, the natural environment and human health. Air quality measurement, monitoring and management is a constantly evolving scientific discipline because of recent discoveries and increasingly stringent regulations in response to the links between air quality and human health.

We provide comprehensive air quality measurement, monitoring, modelling and management services, serving as a trusted advisor to our clients in the mining, oil and gas, infrastructure, manufacturing, government and power sectors. Our air quality and odour laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, holds NATA accreditation for a range of over 200 air quality, meteorological, odour, stack-testing and occupational hygiene monitoring parameters.

Our air quality and odour testing services include:

  • Air quality, odour and greenhouse gas emissions inventories
  • Air quality and odour modelling (for permitting and regulatory compliance)
  • Carbon cycle dynamics (e.g., measurements of CH4, CO2 and carbon isotopes)
  • Area source emissions (e.g., flux emission monitoring, fugitive dust quantification)
  • Soil gas and vapour intrusion surveys Landfill gas measurements
  • Ambient air quality measurement and monitoring, including:
    • Meteorology
    • Trace gases, including GHGs
    • Particulate matter
    • Odour
    • VOCs and other air toxics
  • Workplace exposure assessments, including:
    • Inhalable and respirable dust
    • Diesel particulate
    • VOC’s and organic vapours
    • Reduced sulphur compounds (e.g., h3S)
    • Welding fumes
    • Noise assessments
  • Stack testing services, including:
    • Trace gases
    • Particulate matter
    • Odour
    • VOCs and other air toxics
  • Specialty topics and studies, including:
    • Source apportionment
    • Geochemical forensics
    • Aerial deposition
    • Fluoride assessments in vegetation
  • Indoor air quality measurements

 

One of the most significant environmental issues resulting from new civil infrastructure and heavy industry can be changes to noise and vibration. WSP has conducted extensive environmental impact assessments for airport, rail, tram and industrial infrastructure projects.

Our noise and vibration testing services include:

  • Noise and vibration measurement and monitoring
  • Noise and vibration source characterisation
  • Modelling and prediction
  • Noise mitigation

 

WSP has developed specialist rock testing capabilities for geotechnical and civil engineering projects, and we are continuing to develop and expand our services to meet your testing needs.

Our rock testing services include:

  • Strength - Triaxial and UCS
  • Abrasion and durability
  • Compaction and density
  • Bearing ratio and strength
  • Drillability and hardness
  • Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity
  • Pressuremeter
  • TBM testing suites for Road Header and TBM machines
  • Strength Triaxial and UCS and middle third Modulus and Poisons ratio
  • Cerchar
  • Brazillian tensile strength
  • Punch indentation
  • Point load
  • In-situ field density testing by use of Portable Nuclear Gauge (PNG)

 

WSP has developed specialist soil testing for geotechnical and civil engineering projects, and we are continuing to develop and expand our services to meet your testing needs.

Our soil testing services include:

  • Compaction and density
  • Consolidation
  • Abrasion and aggregate testing
  • California Bearing Ratio (CBR)
  • Strength (including triaxial and shear box)
  • Soil stabilisation mix trials
  • Permeability
  • Reactivity and dispersion
  • Electrical resistivity
  • Thermal conductivity
  • Chemistry and analytical
  • Classification
  • Pressuremeter
  • In-situ field density testing by use of Portable Nuclear Gauge (PNG)

Our laboratories are also equipped to undertake specialist soil mixing trials for input to ground improvement, cut-off wall and remediation design.

 

One of the specialties of WSP’s laboratories is the testing of tailings materials. Testing services on tailings include traditional index, permeability, consolidation and strength testing, and specialised laboratory testing formulated to address design needs for specific mining projects. Testing on tailings is routinely conducted with or without chemical additives.

Following advances in tailings management technology, WSP continuously improves laboratory methods for testing tailings materials. Our laboratories employ specialised equipment and procedures to evaluate tailings properties for a wide range of processing techniques and thickening options, including evaluations of mixtures with different chemical additives.

Our tailings testing services include:

  • Settling Column and Air Drying
  • Flume/Beach Slope
  • Slurry Consolidation
  • Wind Tunnel
  • Constant Rate of Strain Consolidation
  • Seepage Induced Consolidation Test and Analysis
  • Monotonic Cyclic Direct Simple Shear
  • Hazardous Materials
  • Standard and Cyclic Triaxial
  • Heap Leach (Load-Percolation and Load-Permeability)
  • Bespoke Experiments

 

Following the acquisition of GTI Perth, WSP has expanded its geotechnical testing capability to include a comprehensive suite of offshore geotechnical testing services. With our state-of-the-art laboratory and team of experienced professionals, we are dedicated to unlocking the full potential of your projects.

Our suite of Offshore Geotechnical services includes:

  • Consolidation Testing
  • Static and Cyclic Direct Shear testing
  • Static and Cyclic Simple Shear testing
  • Static and Cyclic Triaxial Testing
  • Offshore Investigation Representative services
  • Long Term Sample Storage

 

WSP has a network of 9 Asbestos Testing Laboratories, which are NATA accredited to ISO/IEC 17025. This network means we are quickly able to respond to our clients’ needs. We also facilitate mobile or field laboratories for asbestos identification and asbestos fibre counting for regional or large projects where on the spot analysis is critical.

Our NATA Accredited Services:

  • Asbestos fibre identification in bulk samples. Amosite; chrysotile; crocidolite; organic fibres; synthetic mineral fibres by polarised light microscopy (including dispersion staining) using AS 4964
  • Fibre identification in soil samples. Amosite; chrysotile; crocidolite; organic fibres; synthetic mineral fibres by polarised light microscopy (including dispersion staining) using AS 4964
  • Asbestos Fibre Counting. Estimation of airborne asbestos fibres by the membrane filter method described in the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission Guidance Note (2005)
  • Inhalable and Respirable Dust by Gravimetry – AS 3640 and AS 2985 (NATA)
  • Serpentine analysts by XRD

In addition to our NATA accredited analysis, we also offer soil reports for Asbestos %w/w, based on values outlined in Guideline on Investigation Levels for Soil and Groundwater [National Environment Protection (Assessment of Site Contamination) Measure 1999 (April 2013)].

 

 

Field testing services

 

WSP is one of the industry leaders in the application of geophysics for obtaining subsurface information.

Our team adopts innovative investigation methods, tailored to solve project-specific challenges using a range of geophysical techniques. Geophysical testing complements other data to enhance site information, improving your ability to make decisions in a cost-efficient manner.

Our geophysical testing services include:

Land

  • Seismic Refraction
  • Multi-channel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW)
  • Seismic Reflection
  • ReMI and HVSR
  • Electrical Resistivity Imaging (ERI)
  • Electrical Resistivity Sounding (ERS/VES)
  • Electromagnetic Surveying (Time- and Frequency-domain)
  • Self-Potential (SP)
  • Microgravity
  • Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
  • Non-Destructive Testing (NDT)

Marine

  • Seismic reflection
  • Marine Seismic refraction
  • Sub-bottom profiling (SBP)
  • Bathymetry (MBES)
  • Side-scan sonar
  • ERI
  • Magnetometry

Borehole

  • Vertical seismic profiling (VSP; ‘downhole seismic’)
  • Cross-hole seismic testing
  • Cross-hole Resistivity Imaging
  • Parallel seismic
  • Wireline logging including:
    • Acoustic televiewer (ATV)
    • Optical televiewer (OTV)
    • Mechanical caliper
    • Natural gamma
    • Full waveform sonic (FWS)
    • Electromagnetic (EM) conductivity
    • Magnetic susceptibility
    • Flow logging
    • Formation resistivity
    • Fluid resistivity
    • Fluid temperature
    • Self-potential (SP)

 

Hydraulic Stress Measurement is a simple and well-known test, designed to measure rock stress at any depth.

WSP has developed specialist in-situ stress testing capabilities for mining and geotechnical engineering projects. Hydraulic Stress Measurement tests a larger volume of rock and provides improved data reliability when compared to other rock stress testing methods.

Our services include:

  • Maximum and minimum horizontal stress and orientation

 

We can conduct a range of hydrogeological tests in urban, rural, industrial, and remote settings. Our teams work with technical and design hydrogeologists at the forefront of data analyses and interpretation.

We develop targeted field testing and investigations to aid in conceptualisation, inform gap analyses, undertake site-specific risk assessments and provide fit-for-site solutions using technology and tools in our advanced data analysis wheelhouse to understand a problem.

Our testing services include:

Groundwater monitoring

  • Drilling and monitoring bore installation design and supervision
  • Well development Groundwater sampling; physical (bailer / hydrasleev) and mechanical (shallow and deep low-flow pumps) methods
  • Field properties testing; depth to GWL, pH, EC, TDS, SS, Redox, DO plus
  • Programming and deployment of pressure transducers
  • VWP onsite calibration and installation supervision
  • Facilitate chemical laboratory testing

Conventional aquifer testing

  • Insitu permeability testing; constant and falling head tests
  • Slug tests; conventional (solid slug) and pneumatic
  • Packer (or Lugeon) test; SWiPS including single and straddle
  • Pumping tests; step, constant rate, recovery

Bespoke aquifer testing

  • Pumping tests under artesian conditions
  • Heat-pulse flowmeter testing
  • Fluorometer

Data analyses and interpretation

Using python (R Studio and other languages), we have streamlined groundwater monitoring data analyses of common calculations and time-series charts to evaluate aquifers. We have enhanced statistical interpretation methodologies that determine aquifer hydrogeological properties, such as:

  • Clustering
  • Covariance matrices
  • Matrix factorisation
  • Euclidean distance heatmaps, and many more.

 

At WSP, we strive to be the most trusted, reliable, innovative and responsive partner to our clients in the areas of ground engineering and environmental services.

Pile testing covers a range of different methods, all of which are suited for specific information targeted at different foundation/pile types. WSP can support you with pile verification throughout your project cycle.

Our pile testing services include:

  • High Strain Dynamic (PDA)
  • Low Strain Integrity (PIT)
  • CAPWAP® Analysis
  • GRLWEAP Analysis

We can also advise on and implement other pile testing methods such as static load, cross hole sonic logging and thermal integrity. WSP’s pile testing experts hold VicRoads prequalification and Pile Dynamics Master level certification.