Flume design and construction is a historic strength at IIHR. We a number of flumes that were designed and constructed in-house. These are available for client projects as needed. Our clients take advantage IIHR’s extensive existing facilities and resources to get a running start on many projects.
In addition, our staff have the skills to design and construct custom flumes to meet client needs. Our team has also built and installed a number of flumes around the country.
IIHR has a number of flumes available for client projects, including the following:
- Tilting flume (high-gradient sediment flume)
- Kennedy flume (low-gradient sediment flume with integrated wind tunnel)
- Two-foot flume (fixed-gradient flume with low turbulence characteristics)
- Environmental flow facility (IIHR’s largest flume)
- Towing tank flume
Our flumes have served industry, researchers, and students worldwide for decades. Our team can design a customized flume to meet client specifications, including size, height, tilt, and speed. We do the structural calculations to size the steel, glass thickness, and connections. With this information, we can develop a very detailed set of 2-D and 3-D drawings of the entire structure, and deliver this design to the client, along with a report document. Recent flume design clients include Iowa State University, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina, University of Wisconsin, University at Buffalo, and New Mexico Tech.
