Jump to the content

Turbidity Currents Facility

Turbidity Currents Facility
   
This facility was especially built to perform turbidity currents tests.

The facility has an upstream tank, the flume, the return hydraulic circuit and the water and sediment mixing tank. The channel is 0.30 m wide, 20 m long and 0.75 m deep. The channel bottom profile was designed with a special configuration to make possible to simulate plunging turbidity currents in reservoirs. An upstream 4.74 m long reach with a bottom slope of 0.014 simulates the river flow approaching a reservoir. An abrupt change in the bottom profile produced by a ramp with a slope of 30º represents the steepness of the front delta deposits in the upper part of the reservoir. Downstream, an 8 m long reach with a slope of 0.014 and a final horizontal 3.75 m long bed reproduce the reservoir in which currents develops.