Department of Civil Engineering

Research

The major facilities in the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory include
  1. a 2m (W) x 1.3m (H) x 36m (L) ferrocement wave flume that is equipped with a towing carriage and wave generation system for simulation of different types of ocean wave spectra; and
  2. a multipurpose wave basin of size 10m (W) x 0.9m (H) x 24m (L) which is facilitated as wave and tidal basins as well as for general physical model tests. A fully automated 3-D wave maker/wave absorption and tide generation system has been installed in this basin for studying tidal motion in coastal waters.
In addition, the laboratory is also equipped with a current flume and two experiment flumes for teaching. These include a recirculating 0.9m (W) x 0.9m (H) x 38m (L) glass walled wave flume capable of random wave generation and a tilting channel of size 0.6m (W) x 0.6m (H) x 15m (L).

Laboratory instrumentation includes transducers, ADV (Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters), flow-meters, capacitance probes, a PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) system, OBS-5 (Optical Backscatter), a bed profiler and a number of high-speed data acquisition systems.

The facilities have been used for research including long-term beach morphology, wave-structure interaction and sediment transport.