Before my PhD even started the brand new setup for our experiments (The Metronome) arrived by truck. It was pretty impressive, especially when the flume was lifted of the truck and needed to be maneuvered through the doors with only a few centimeters to spare. To make it even more difficult, inside, the setup needed to be turned 90 degrees to be positioned in the predestined spot. After a long day of moving centimeter by centimeter The Metronome finally arrived at the right location.
The experimental setup is a tidal flume that will be able to tilt in two directions to simulate ebb and flood flow. This new mechanism solves many scaling issues for small scale tidal experiments. Because we scale down the water depth, this normally results is smaller flow velocities though the grains cannot be scaled down equally due to cohesion of small particles. Because we now tilt the flume in two directions we exaggerate the bed gradient which increases flow velocities. Exaggerating bed gradients have actually already been used in many small-scale river experiments for a long time, however now we tilt the slope for bi-directional flow.
Article published in the DUB about the arrival of ‘The Metronome’. Click here for the full article.
