The flume models the real environment of a riverbed.
My second stop during my visit to the University of Idaho’s main structure in Boise took me to what I would consider the facility’s pride and joy - the water flume.
The flume looks like a cross between a giant, mechanized bed of a dump truck and a slip-and-slide. The main feature is a ramp with walls extending nearly 70-feet long and measuring 6 -feet wide. One end of the flume can be lowered or raised up to the ceiling to give the flume a different degree of elevation; up to 11 degrees.
The purpose of the flume is to study how waters run in river beds. Scientists fill the device with pebbles and rocks measuring up to 2.5 inches in diameter, raise the flume’s degree of incline to match the conditions of the river bed and run a whole bunch of water over the simulated riverbed.
As this is happening, a motorized sensor sits on railings over the stream of water. It shoots up and down the entire length of the flume, all the while taking detailed measurements with lasers of up to six separate parameters. The result is a detailed look at how the water is flowing over the rocks, how the sediment is traveling with the water and the overall complex system of a riverbed.
The flume is one of the largest, most versatile, most impressive of its kind in the entire world.
So what can a scientist do with such a flume? Besides studying what the affects of a flooding of the Boise River would be and designing a whitewater recreation park for the city, Elowyn Yager, assistant professor at the Center for Ecohydraulic Research (CER), which is the name of the center that runs the flume, studies fluvial geomorphology. Just in case you’re not sure, that is the science of rivers in the landscape. She studies how rivers transport sediment in order to predict how environmental changes such as fires, logging and landslides will affect mountain ecosystems.
However, there are a ton of people who want to use the flume. It never sits idle. The center has a research team from Great Britain coming over the summer. Additionally, students from Nepal, Costa Rica, Chile, Italy, Australia, Germany, Bangladesh and Austria have all utilized the facility.
And to take it a step further, the director of CER, Peter Goodwyn, wants to link the computers to a world wide computing system, so researchers from around the world can receive data and run experiments with the flume from anywhere in the world.
As you can tell, I was very impressed with the flume, and in the near future, I think the whole state - even the whole country - will be as well.
Tags: Boise, Center for Ecohydraulics Research, Elowyn Yager, flume, Peter Goodwyn, research and extension center
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