Constructing the Flume

The 40-foot Recirculating Sediment Flume was designed and built by the staff of Engineering Laboratory Designs, Inc. of Lake City, Minnesota. Despite the massive size of the flume, each component had to fit within the double-door outside entrance to the Flume Lab! The photos show the steps that went into constructing and testing the flume.

Time-Lapse Photography

Time-lapse photographs taken during a flume run provide our students and faculty with high-quality still images for documentation or presentations.  We use a Nikon D5000 camera that can be mounted from the ceiling at mid-flume or the downstream end.  Please select the link below to see a sequence of time-lapse photographs from a recent lab exercise.

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Flume Data Acquisition Cart

To map the features produced during a flume run, we have an automated Data Acquistion Cart designed by the NCED-St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota.  The cart is capable of high-speed data acquisition of the sediment surface using laser and sonar sensors, and can be programmed to take photo-mosaics.  These computer-contolled instruments map the flume in a matter of minutes, compared to the hours to days it would take to measure by hand.  Select the link below to view a short video of the cart.

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