Experimental Hydraulics ─ Methods, Instrumentation, Data Processing and Management: Fundamentals and Methods / Instrumentation and Measurement Techniques

A practical guide for the design of laboratory and field experiments, selection of appropriate instrumentation and experimental methodologies, as well as for conducting and analyzing experimental studies. Providing an end-to-end guidance to support experimentalists in the design and collection of the targeted data with prescribed accuracy. Currently, many studies are carried out in laboratories under less than ideal conditions that significantly influence the experimental outcomes (e.g., secondary currents, flume aspect ratio and development length, etc) and with instruments that are not always well tunned to the measurement environment (i.e., adequate temporal and spatial resolution for the flow under investigation). These limitations need to be understood and counteracted with appropriate measures. Practical information on many topics of experimentation presently can only be found in scientific papers or specialized monographs on laboratory practice.

A one-stop-guide on all the above mentioned aspects is missing while long overdue. This book highlights the intrinsic connection between analytical and experimental research to illustrate the need for their complementary use. Essential guidelines for the appropriate design of experimental studies including the selection of the facility and instruments for specialized experiments will be described next. The book provides an introduction to the instrumentation available for various investigations. Conventional instruments will be briefly introduced in terms of their capabilities and limitations with proper guidance to the best available sources of information that describes them in full. The new generation of instruments will receive more attention through the descripton of their operating principles, capabilities and limitations and, where necessary, providing case studies for illustration purposes. Finally, the important aspects of uncertainty assessment, ancillary data processing, reporting, and efficient storing of the data for further extraction of information and knowledge are described in the closing chapters of the book.

The target audience are academic research (students along with both novice and experienced researchers) as well as practitioners involved in various aspects of the measurements.

Marian V. Muste is Research Engineer with the Iowa Institute of Hydroscience and Engineering, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa. Dr. Muste’s areas of research include experimental river mechanics (laboratory and field investigations), instrumentation development and implementation (image-, acoustic-, and laser-based), uncertainty analysis, and hydroinformatics. He is author or co-author of more than 185 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and 75 technical reports. Dr. Muste is expert for UNESCO’s International Hydrologic Program and World Meteorological Organization Commission for Hydrology projects. He was chair for the Experimental Methods and Instrumentation, and is a former Vice-president of the International Association of Hydro-Environmental Engineering and Research.

Dr. Jochen Aberle is Professor at the Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Germany, and Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research expertise includes river morphology, sediment transport, rough bed flows, flow-vegetation-sediment interaction, fluid-structure interaction, and experimental methods in the field and laboratory. Dr. Aberle has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Hydraulic Research, and was chair of the IAHR Experimental Methods and Instrumentation Committee.

David M. Admiraal is an Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His research expertise includes laboratory and field investigations of sediment transport, river hydraulics, and hydraulic structures. Most of his work incorporates experimental modeling. Dr. Admiraal has over 50 journal and conference publications in a wide variety of hydraulic engineering topics. He is actively involved in ASCE's Technical Committee on Hydraulic Measurements and Experimentation and has served as the chair of the committee. He has also acted as co-chair for two conferences on Hydraulic Measurements and Experimental Methods.

Robert Ettema is the Harold H. Short Professor at Colorado State University’s Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He actively conducts laboratory and field experiments in several areas of hydraulic engineering, including hydraulic structures, alluvial-channel hydraulics and cold-regions hydraulics. Dr. Ettema chaired the committee that prepared the monograph Hydraulic Modeling: Concepts and Practice, Manual 97, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. His prior positions were as a professor at the University of Wyoming and the University of Iowa, where he has a member of IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering.

Marcelo H. Garcia is the M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Chair in Civil Engineering and Director of the "Ven Te Chow" Hydrosystems Laboratory at the University of Illinois-Urbana. His research interests are in rivers, sediment transport, environmental fluid mechanics and experimental techniques. His scholarship includes 4 books, 19 book chapters, and more than 150 peer-reviewed papers covering a wide range of fundamental and practical in hydraulics engineering. Dr. Garcia was Editor-in-chief of the ASCE Sedimentation Engineering Manual 110, served as Editor of the Journal of Hydraulic Research, and is recipient of numerous professional awards.

Dennis A. Lyn is Professor of Civil Engineering in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University. In addition to a general interest in statistical thinking and analysis of data, Dr. Lyn is specifically interested in turbulence, open-channel flows, sediment transport and scour phenomena, with applications to river engineering. Dr. Lyn served on the editorial boards of several hydraulics-focused journals and was Editor of the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering.

Vladimir Nikora is the Sixth Century Chair in Environmental Fluid Mechanics at the School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, UK. His main research areas relate to turbulent flows, sediment dynamics, hydraulic resistance, flow-biota interactions, and experimental methods. Dr. Nikora has served as Editor of IAHR Journal of Hydraulic Research and Associate Editor for AGU Water Resources Research and ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering. He has been active contributor to IAHR Instrumentation Section as a member, secretary and Section Chair. Dr. Nikora is Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Colin D. Rennie is a Professor of Civil Engineering, at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He has expertise in areas of river morphology and engineering, environmental hydraulics, sediment transport, turbulence, and aquatic habitat. His research focuses on channel morphodynamics and mixing processes, utilizing high-resolution field measurements with acoustic instruments, laboratory physical models, and three-dimensional numerical modelling. He has published 150+ refereed articles, including papers in premiere journals such as Nature. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, and a past-Chair of the IAHR Experimental Methods and Instrumentation Committee.