FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY

MANAGEMENT

BACKGROUND

MISSION STATEMENTS

PRINCIPAL FACILITIES

EDUCATION PROGRAMS

RESEARCH PROJECTS

LABORATORY COORDINATOR:

Dr. Francis C. K. Ting

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

South Dakota State University

Brookings, SD 57007-0495

Office: [605] 688-5997 Fax: [605] 688-6476

Email: mailto:francis.ting@sdstate.edu

MANAGEMENT:

The Fluid Mechanics Laboratory is managed by a three-member committee consisting of  faculty from the College of Engineering. The current committee members are Dr. Hal Werner from Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Dr. Francis Ting from Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Dr. Alex Moutsoglou from Mechanical Engineering.
 

BACKGROUND:

The Fluid Mechanics Laboratory is a College of Engineering laboratory with all disciplines utilizing the facility including the departments of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. On-site equipment includes an open-channel flume, a three-component laser Doppler anemometer,  a stereoscopic particle image velocimetry system, and various apparatus for flow visualizations and fluid mechanics measurements. Numerous experimental and instructional assignments and endeavors occur in the laboratory.   

MISSION STATEMENTS:

The Fluid Mechanics Laboratory is dedicated to support research and education in engineering. The  main purposes of the laboratory are:

• To improve student learning of fluid mechanics principles by providing hands-on laboratory experiences
• To teach undergraduate and graduate students the modern techniques of fluid mechanics measurements
• To provide elevated education quality for students through integration of research and teaching
• To carry out basic and applied research in fluid mechanics and hydraulics
• To develop local expertise in fluid mechanics, hydraulics and water resources that will meet the needs of South Dakota and the region

PRINCIPAL FACILITIES:

The main floor of the laboratory  is 35.6 m long and 8.1 m wide, with a maximum ceiling clearance of 4.27 m.  It contains an open-channel  flume, a pipe circuit apparatus, a  portable tilting flume, and a hydraulic bench with several devices to demonstrate the principles of energy, momentum and other flow  phenomena. There is also a small teaching laboratory on the second floor with a pump test unit, a flow visualization tank, a water hammer apparatus, and a Reynolds apparatus for demonstrating instability of flow through a pipe.

The working section of the open-channel flume is 25 m long, 0.9 m wide and 0.75 m deep. The entire working section sides and floor are fabricated of clear Plexiglas sheets suitable for modern fluid mechanics measurement techniques such as particle image velocimetry and laser-Doppler anemometry that require optical access to the flow. A specially designed recess in the flume floor allows a sediment bed to be prepared for sediment transport and local scour studies.   The flume can be tilted by a system of synchronized jacks from 0.35% adverse to 3.0% positive. A digital display, solid-state inclinometer reports the slope of the bed of the channel.  Stainless instrument rails run the entire length of the working section.

The flume can be used either as an open channel or as a wave tank. Two centrifugal pumps housed in a dry well draw water from a sump and transports it through a supply pipe to a head box.  The pumps are each rated to deliver 2,000 gal/min (4.0 ft³/s) at 20 ft head. Two variable frequency inverters regulate the speed of the pumps.  A commercially manufactured, low head loss, modified venturi meter is installed in the supply pipe.  A pressure transducer with a digital readout monitors the water flow rate.  Motorized head gate and tailgate control the water depth.

The flume is equipped with a piston type wave generator from DHI Water & Environment. The stroke of the wave generator is 1 m. The maximum wave height that can be generated is about 0.37 m at a water depth of 0.5 m. The wave generator has active wave absorption to reduce the build up of long-wave oscillation in the flume.  The wave generation software includes options for synthesizing linear, 2^nd order, cnoidal and solitary waves.  A number of standard surface elevation spectra are available within the wave synthesizer. In addition, the wave synthesizer can reproduce a time series of surface elevations.

The laboratory has a stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) system for measuring instantaneous three-dimensional velocity field in a plane, and a three-component laser-Doppler anemometer  (LDA) for measuring fluid turbulence.  The laboratory also has two acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADV) and a number of wave gages for measurement of flow velocity and water surface elevation.  A network of personal computers is used for instrument control and data acquisition.

                          Open-Channel Flume                                     Wave Generation System
 

EDUCATION PROGRAMS:

Undergraduate and graduate courses that utilize the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory include AE434 Soil and Water Instrumentation Laboratory, CEE 331 Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, CEE 492/592 Advanced Hydraulic Engineering, and ME 376 Measurement and Instrumentation Laboratory. Undergraduate students also use this laboratory for senior design projects and independent studies..  Outreach activities include the Big Sioux Water Festival and Youth Engineering Adventure. 

              Advanced Hydraulic Engineering                                            Independent Study

RESEARCH PROJECTS:

Current research that utilizes the open-channel/wave mechanics flume includes an experimental investigation of coherent structures under breaking waves. The principal investigator of this project is Dr. Francis Ting , Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

                                      Vortex Structure Under a Broken Solitary Wave