Interaction between solid surfaces and turbulent flow occurs very frequently in nature. Some instances of such interactions may be extremely important for many engineering applications in rivers, oceans. One of the ongoing projects in Kelso S. Baker Environmental Hydraulics Laboratory pertains to sediment transport, where the focus is on understanding the influence of turbulence on bed material motion and/or entrainment in open channel flows near threshold conditions. For this purpose, well-controlled experiments are performed at the laboratory in a tilting flume. These experiments involve simultaneous measurements of “flow velocities with a 3D LDV system” and “test particle entrainment” (as well as particle trajectory) using non-intrusive laser based techniques with up to 1000 samples per second.

Sponsor-National Science Foundation