Hydraulics/Fluids Laboratory
The Hydraulics and Fluid Mechanics Laboratory is used in Civil Engineering fluid mechanics and water resources classes. The lab is designed to give students hands-on experience with fluid flows in Civil Engineering.
Water is supplied to various experiments by a large storage tank under the floor of the lab. A Goulds 3796 self-priming pump, capable of producing 1000 gallons per minute of flow at a head of 80 ft, pumps water into a pipe system, past a flow meter, and distributes it to the equipment in the lab. A system of channels is built into the floor of the lab to return water to the storage tank.
Experimental Apparatus:
- One 32 ft by 4 ft open channel flume, capable of simulating open channel flows, sediment transport, flow through flood plains, and unsteady flow over weirs.
- One 16 ft by 1 ft open channel flume, suitable for studying steady-uniform flow, gradually-varying water surface profiles, and rapidly-varying flows such as hydraulic jumps.
- A weir box for studying flow over weirs of various shapes.
- A subsonic wind tunnel
- Various measurement devices, including hot-wire and hot-film anemometers.
Additional equipment is located outside the laboratory, including:
- An air flow apparatus to measure head losses for flow through plastic pipes, velocity profiles across a pipe, and flow through a venturi.
- A pipe network to measure head losses through individual pipes, pipes in parallel, and pipes in series.
- A testing apparatus to develop characteristic curves for pumps and turbines.
