St. Anthony Falls Laboratory Flumes

One of the oldest flumes in the country where many important discoveries were made is at the University of Minnesota, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. This is one of the only flumes that uses the natural flow of a river for simulations...most have a big tank where water is pumped into, then allowed to flow through the flume. At SAFL, they have redirected a small amount of water from the Mississippi through various constructed channels where they perform a number of interesting experiments on the role of vegetation, the role of sinuosity, surface/groundwater interactions, to name a few.

Check out their website for ideas, inspiration, and hope.
http://www.safl.umn.edu/facilities/facilities.html

Our New Science Toy: The Flume

Other than being a cool word, Flumes are experimental pipes and rivers. They are used by scientists to understand how water and air flow through and around different media. I am lucky enough to be on the ground floor of a new flume being built at the Civil Engineering Department of the Univ. of Arizona. Ours is a sediment flume. The goal is to use this tool to understand how rivers meander. We are putting the final touches on the flume, and I will update this blog with the progress of experiments with the flume. Here are some photos of its present state.