The Armfield S6-MKIII laboratory flow channel is one of the most important tools available to the hydraulics or civil engineer whether engaged in teaching basic principles or researching solutions to practical problems.

Description

The Armfield S6-MKIII laboratory flow channel is one of the most important tools available to the hydraulics or civil engineer whether engaged in teaching basic principles or researching solutions to practical problems. Many applications in fluid mechanics are associated with the flow of water through an open channel where the water has a free surface that is exposed to the air at atmospheric pressure.

The flumes are available in different lengths from 5 to 17.5 meters increasing in 2.5 meter increments. Armfield flumes are installed in educational and research establishments throughout the world.

A comprehensive range of accessories, and measuring instruments is available including discharge control, wave generation and a closed loop for sediment transport studies.

• A self-contained glass sided tilting flume for fluid mechanics laboratory experiments, project work and research activities
• The flume working channel is assembled from modular sections of 2.5m length. A wide choice of standard lengths are available from 5m upwards
• The flume cross-section is 300mm wide by 450mm deep
• A fabricated high precision stainless steel bed provides excellent strength and rigidity, eliminating the need for a separate under-frame.
• No adjustments other than the jacking stations are necessary in order to set up and maintain the equipment, achieving typical bed deformations better than 1mm
• Each flume incorporates a discharge tank fitted with an adjustable overshot weir and draught tube to avoid splashing and noise
• An electro-magnetic flow meter is incorporated as standard
• A comprehensive range of optional accessories and instruments is available to supplement the capabilities of the basic flume
• Closed-loop re-circulation is an option for sediment transport studies

Engineering

The most important aspect of a tilting flume is retaining the integrity of the working section. To achieve this requires an extremely rigid design which ensures almost no deflection regardless of load or tilt.

Experiments & Research

The Armfield S6-MKIII flume has been developed during 30 years of continuous production, and examples are installed in educational and research establishments throughout the world.
The flumes are available in different lengths to suit the application, short versions for basic investigations and longer versions for investigations of gradually varied flow profiles with non-uniform channel flow.

All Armfield Teaching and research flumes can optionally be supplied with two variants of our market leading software providing Data Acquisition and optional addition of Software control.

Data Logging and Instrumentation System S6-MKIII-DTA-ALITE is a software-based application with supporting hardware providing the following functionality:

• Electronic inclinometer to measure slope of bed
• Electronic manometer to measure: Including bed tapping’s, pressure readings from hydraulic structures
• Differential pressure sensor for use with Pitot tube
• Voltage input channels for use with their instrumentation
• Thermistor sensor to measure water temperature
• USB interface and software included to allow data logging of the above parameters. The software includes sophisticated sampling, calibration and graph plotting facilities including the ability to save or export the data in Microsoft Excel format

The S6-MKIII-DTA-ASuite Software Control and Data Acquisition package includes the S6-MKIII-DTA-ALITE data logging and instrumentation software and in addition incorporates an inverter within the control console for electronic speed control for the flow channel pump.

Control Functions:

• Inverter speed control of circulating pump, either by front panel control or from a PC. When using PC control the pump speed can be set in a PID loop to maintain a constant flow rate
• Control of powered jacking system to set specific slope of bed

Note: The S6-MKIII-DTA-ASuite must be purchased at the time of order because it cannot be retrofit.

Features & Benefits

• Accurate for education and research
• Designed for ease of visibility:- toughened glass sides, slimline side supports and comfortable viewing height
• Modular construction supplied in pre-glazed sections for rapid and easy site assembly
• Wave generation options which can be used to propagate random or regular waves in the working section

Technical Specifications

Walls: Toughened glass
Bed: Exclusively fabricated from stainless steel
End tanks: GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic)
Sump tanks & pipework: PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) & PE (polyethylene)
Pump: Close-coupled centrifugal
Flow regulation valve: Hand wheel operated butterfly
Tilt parameters:
+ve slope 1:40 max (1.4º)
-ve slope 1:200 max (0.28º)
Flow meter: Electro-magnetic
Maximum flow rate: 38 Litres/sec
Bed stability: 1.0mm (typical) at 400mm water depth
Side wall stability: 0.8mm (typical) at 400mm water depth
Width: 0.3m
Height: 0.45m

Tilting configurable modular flumes S6-MKIII

Working section dimensions

Type: Tilting or standard flume

Length (in 2.5m modular increments): 5m

Width: 0.3m

Height: 0.45m

Above lists standard size flume, available in free discharge or recirculation.
Bespoke lengths and widths can also be offered.

Tilt parameters
Working Section   5M    7.5M   10M   12.5m   15m   17.5m
(+)%                     5       5         4.5      3.6        2.9     2.5
(-)%                      2.1    1.4      0.9      0.7        0.5     0.5
Total                    7.1     6.4      5.4      4.3        3.4     3