RESEARCH FACILITIES AND ACTIVITIES

The Civil Engineering Department has three hydraulic laboratories. The major laboratory for graduate research is the T. Blench Hydraulics Laboratory, which has a floor area of 1,040 m2. Major items of equipment in this laboratory are:

• 1.2 x 0.6 x 30 m computercontrolled tilting, sediment transport flume with separate recirculating systems for water and sediment.
• 0.9 x 0.7 x 36 m tilting flume.
• 1.2 x 0.6 x 10 m tilting flume.
• 2.3 x 0.3 x 12 m tilting river tray.
• 1.2 x 2.4 x 4.8 m tank.
• 1.1 x 1.2 x 3.5 m tank.
• 0.17 x 0.2 x 20.8 m flume c/w 270 degrees bend.
• Wind tunnel with an 0.6 x 0.6 x 5 m working section and 25 m/s maximum velocity capability.
• 1.7 x 1.5 m octagonal tank with an associated pump capable of generating 90 MPa used for studying high velocity cavitating jets.

  There are also several smaller flumes and tanks available.

  This laboratory is equipped with the latest in electronic instrumentation. A major item of this type is a DISA, two-colour, laser doppler anemometer (LDA) that is capable of nonintrusive measurement of two components of the 'instantaneous' velocity at a point simultaneously. In addition there is a fibre optic laser doppler anemometer (FOLDA) which measures velocity and turbulence in one direction through a moveable probe which is connected to the laser optics via glass fibre cables.

  The flumes are equipped with electronic water level detectors, bed level detectors and computer-controlled traverse systems that allow automated data collected for water surface and bed profiles, velocity distributions and so on. Hardcopies of this information can be made using the various x-y plotters and strip chart recorders available in the laboratory, and can be stored in analog form using the Hewlett-Packard and B & K FM tape records, or digital form using the data loggers.

  Among the many other instruments available are a hot-wire/film anemometer, pressure transducers, hydrogen bubble generator, pitot tubes, current meters, Leopold-Stevens water level recorders, fluorometer, cameras, etc.

  The second research laboratory is the Ellerslie Hydraulics Laboratory located on the University farm near the city limits. It has a floor space of 560 m2 and the pumps installed have a combined capacity of 600 L/s. Equipment in the laboratory includes a 3 x 1 x 20 m fixed flume, a 0.5 x 0.5 x 8 m tilting flume and a curved (S) flume for studying flow in bends. This laboratory has traditionally been used for model studies and a large portion of the floor area is kept available for this purpose.

  The remaining hydraulics laboratory is in the Civil Engineering Building and is used for undergraduate student instruction. However it does contain equipment that can be used for research work. This includes in particular 0.2 x 0.2 x 10 m and 0.5 x 0.7 x 5 m tilting flumes and a small curved (meandering) fixed bed plexiglas flume.

  Graduate students and staff have ready access to excellent computing facilities provided by both the Water Resources Engineering Group and the University of Alberta Computing and Network Services. Microcomputers, workstations, mainframe and supercomputer access is available.

  The University of Alberta library currently houses over 2 million volumes and subscribes to over 16,000 journals which can be accessed using the GATE. The library is currently adding 100,000 volumes per year. In addition the Boreal Research Institute is located on campus and maintains a comprehensive collection of books, journals and reports on civil engineering in cold regions.

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