Experimental Flume with Closed Water Circuit for Open-Channel Hydraulics

The FM760 is a fully self-contained experimental flume designed to teach the full breadth of open-channel hydraulics in a single bench-top installation. The experimental section has transparent tempered-glass side walls along its full length, giving students an unobstructed view of free-surface phenomena, flow transitions, wave fronts and sediment motion as they occur.

The flume operates in a closed water circuit: a centrifugal pump draws water from an integrated reservoir, delivers it through a flow-optimised inlet element with very low residual turbulence, and returns it to the reservoir through the outlet element. The inclination of the channel is finely adjustable across both negative and positive slopes, allowing uniform flow at constant depth as well as supercritical regimes to be established and held steady throughout an experimental session.

The bottom of the experimental section is fitted with evenly spaced threaded mounting points so that weirs, gates, piers, sills, culverts, sediment traps and the wave generator can be bolted in place quickly and reliably. All wetted surfaces are manufactured from corrosion-resistant materials (stainless steel and glass-reinforced plastic), which together with the 5-year warranty and 15-year spare-parts availability give universities a long working life with predictable maintenance costs.