Water Engineering 3

Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

Contents:
Introduction Flume Equipment Experiment Methodology Results and Analysis Conclusion Pg.1 Pg.2 Pg.3 Pg.4 Pg.7

Introduction:
A fundamental part of the water engineering course is the study and classification of flow types and within this the analysis of uniform flow is a key skill. In order to gain experience in classifying flows an experiment was performed which utilises a Shields flume to create a flow 1 situation where it can be established if the flow is uniform or not.

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This experiment looks at steady uniform flow in which the flow is constant in both time and distance, this is a fundamental flow type and occurs when the gravity forces are in equilibrium with the resistance forces. Specific objectives of this experiment are to: Familiarise ourselves with flume components, controls and instruments Establish uniform flow Discuss reasonable error bounds Undertake appropriate data analysis Develop report writing skills

Water Engineering 3
Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

Flume Equipment:

Dimensions
0.3m x 0.35m x 12m

Glass Walled Gradient

Set to 1 in 200 using tilting wheel on flume

Max Velocity of Pump

6.85m/s

Pump Capacity

30 Litres per second

A Digital Pointer Gauge (accurate to 0.01mm) was used to measure the water level height and ground level. A Portaflow is an acoustic device that calculates the discharge and average velocity in the return pipe, under the main flume, that circulates flow from the downstream to upstream end of the flume. The discharge in the pipe is the same as that running through the test section of your flume. The probes connected to the portaflow on the return pipe are set at a distance of 41.1mm

Layout of Varying Bed Materials

Coarse Gravel (17-20 mm)

Marble (13-15mm)

Impermeable Marble bed (13-15mm)

Coarse Gravel (17-20 mm)

2m

1m

1m

1m

7m

Water Engineering 3
Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

Experiment Methodology:
A. Pre Setup of the flume was carried out and settings and readings at every stage were noted. Check that there are no obstructions in the test area of the flume. Set up bed slope to 1/200 using the dial on the flume. Make sure there is a digital pointer gauge for measuring water depth along the length of the flume. Make sure there is a thermometer for measuring water temperature.

B. Starting the Flume: Start the flume using the wall-mounted primary and secondary power buttons. When the screen gives a reading in Hz, set it to 20 Hz (this will cause water to flood the flume) Initially assume water temperature is 23 degrees and reset portaflow if necessary. Using a ruler at intervals and adjusting the tailgate, set the flow depth of 200mm Press 9 on the portaflow to obtain a discharge reading (m3/h) Q

C. Data Collection: Variables that are required to be measured throughout the experiment are velocity, temperature, flow depth. Noting that the pointer gauge rides upon the top of the flume and therefore also drops at the same slope as it is can be shown that a degree of fall has to be taken into account of the fact that the pointer gauge is set to a reference datum. (Fall = distance from reference x slope) Flow depth is measured at 1m intervals along the flume and then produced into table form for analysis where it can be shown if uniform flow has occurred or not.

Water Engineering 3
Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

Results and Analysis:

Two experiments were carried out however the results of the first experiment were found not to reflect uniform flow and therefore it was decided to neglect them from the report.

Water Engineering 3
Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

In this experiment it can be seen that the errors involved with the depth reading are quite low whereas the slope errors are fairly high. An acceptable error would have been around 15% therefore it can be said here that an unsatisfactory uniform flow situation was created. If, however, the first two points were removed as shown below it improves the accuracy of the results.

Water Engineering 3
Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

As can be seen from the above results the flow is very close to being uniform, however this has only occurred as a result of removing the first two measurement points as it was found that these produced most of the error in the results. The first measurement point was removed as it was too close to the pump and therefore uniform flow had not yet started to occur and the second measurement point was removed as it was above the impermeable board and therefore there was a jump in the flume due to the change in Mannings n value. Errors were a major component in this experiment and contributed to the fact that perfect uniform flow was not achieved. Reasons for the errors may be: Human error misreading of results or in noting down the data.

Water Engineering 3
Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

Variations in Mannings value throughout the length of the flume would have been much more satisfactory to have a constant value throughout. Measurement errors there would be an error involved in the placement of the pointer gauge on the rough marbles or gravel, by eye method. Equipment errors fluctuations in the pump flow. Variations in temperature throughout the experiment - as the temperature was only measured at the start. Before Removal (%)
max depth error (+ve) min depth error (-ve) slope error (+ve) slope error (-ve)

After Removal (%) 5.6 -5.4 0.53 -0.54

13.1 -9.1 -38.4 27.75

Throughout this experiment it was decided that an allowable error of around 15% shall be taken. As can be seen from the results previously, Mannings values of 0.021 and 0.022 were found. These values are similar to those you would expect to find in a cleanly excavated earth channels. This would fit the scenario and is a relatively good comparison to the flume. All regression coefficients were found to be above the acceptable value of 40%. The boundary shear stress for the performed experiment was found to be 2.211Nm-2.

Conclusion:

Water Engineering 3
Shields Flume Uniform Flow Experiment

After reviewing the results of the experiment it can be shown that uniform flow was not very accurately produced, providing high error values however removing the first two points increased the accuracy to an acceptable limit. It was found that there were many sources of error throughout the experiment from many different sources, an example to increase the accuracy if a future experiment was to be carried out would be to have a constant bed material and have a better method of measuring the depth, as the by eye method here proved to be very inaccurate. It has shown that setting up a perfect uniform flow situation is a very difficult task and that great care and accuracy must be taken throughout all steps.