IIHR's Environmental Flow Facility, IIHR, College of Engineering, The University of Iowa

The Environmental Flow Facility (EFF) is a re-circulating laboratory flume having a test section 65 ft long, 10 ft wide, and 7.5 ft deep. The structure is built of concrete and steel with the panels of the test section having eight 4-ft wide plate glass windows for flow visualization. The remaining sides and the floor are of 1-1/8-in. thick high-density overlay.

Flow around floor blocks in Pit-6 Dam model (Q_p = 100,000 cfs).

Plan and Elevation of IIHR's Environmental Flow Facility

The flow, propelled by two 36-in. pumps driven by variable speed motors, enters the working section of the flume through a contraction section and a discharge up to 125 cfs can be obtained.

A 1:28-scale model of Pit-6 Dam spillway and energy dissipator installed in the EFF (Q_p = 100,000 cfs).

The facility is equipped with water-filtering equipment and ancillary pumps for feeding and withdrawing heated/cooled flows. The flume is fitted with two 500,000 Btu/hr gas-fired water heaters and a small cooling tower to permit generation of temperature-biased plumes, control of model ambient temperature, and production of density stratification.

The facility has been used primarily for model studies of buoyant plumes, cooling-tower re-circulation and interference, fish-protection devices, spillways, etc. The EFF has also been used to study biophysical characteristics of swimmers to improve their swimming skills.

This unique facility was designed by the late Prof. Hunter Rouse in 1974.

More Information

For more information about IIHR's Environmental Flow Facility, contact Dr. Larry Weber.