Committee on Experimental Methods and Instrumentation [Committee ’s own website]

The Hydraulic Instrumentation Committee is involved in the design and the use of instruments used in both the laboratory and in the field. Additionally methods for the collection, analysis and presentation of data are developed. Because of the diversity of measured hydraulic parameters and flow situations, a wide variety of methods and instruments have been developed.

The advanced state of instrumentation is followed by increasing expectations for data acquisition, which in turn results in the necessity of increased atomisation of data collection and improvement of handling and processing of large data sets.

In the laboratory, the spectrum of instrumentation extends from traditional tools like gauges, Pitot tubes, weirs and orifice meters to more sophisticated, computer-based systems like laser-Doppler-anemometers, hot-wires, particle tracking methods, and image analysis systems. In the field, most of the instruments are used for discharge measurements (velocity, triangulation), for sediment transport (sediment samplers) or for monitoring water quality.

The investigation of hydrologic and hydraulic phenomena requires reliable instrumentation, which are often designed and developed in the hydraulic laboratories. The generation of new general-purpose instruments requires extensive development and testing of prototype instruments developed in the laboratory. The development, use and maintenance of instrumentation used to evaluate water resources, forces exerted by the water etc. are areas of concern within IAHR. Due to the complexity of many of these instruments successful results of measurements are not always guaranteed - neither in laboratories nor in the field, in developed or developing countries. For example, instruments are needed for the measurement of:

• velocity and discharge in rivers, especially in extreme situations (flash floods, low flows, flows on flood plains)
• shear stress on the bottom of salt-marshes in front of a dike
• discharge in groundwater flows and deduced methods to calculate storage estimates of aquifers.
• rain samplers

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Research Agenda

Working Groups

Laboratory systems: Despite the need for robust and inexpensive hydraulic laboratory equipment, development efforts currently focus on developing tools to analyse fundamental hydraulic behaviour. This leads to the development of more accurate methods and instruments to analyse new properties.

Systems for field measurements: Despite the fact that more accurate instruments and methods are also needed in the field to analyse new properties, the main goal is to develop systems that are economical and robust.

Installation of data-acquisition equipment in the field: For almost all major river systems in the world, only insufficient data on their water resource and flow-behaviour exists. The missing data may be quite basic in developing countries or very specific in high industrialised nations (pollution, flood insurance problems, etc.). The operation and maintenance of reliable measuring stations need improvement. The cost of continuous data-acquisition needed for this type of data can become prohibitive. Authorities undertake great efforts to automate the measurement, transmission and analysis of water resources data.

The IAHR-Committee on hydraulic instrumentation could provide an important link between manufacturer and users of these instruments. Particular action is needed in the testing of instruments, a field in which a new system of data-exchange should be set-up in the future. The Committee of Hydraulic Instrumentation of IAHR offers a platform to distribute ideas for new solutions and knowledge about such instruments and methods. Efforts to establish the position of the IAHR as a contributor to the efforts of international standardisation are being undertaken, based on the world-wide activities of the organisation.

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Leadership Team

Prof. Colin Rennie Associate Professor, Associate Department Chair Director Civil Eng. Hydraulics Laboratory Dept of Civil Engineering University of Ottawa, CANADA e-mail: Colin.Rennie@uottawa.ca

Dr.-Ing. Jochen Aberle Leichtweiss-Institut fuer Wasserbau Abteilung Wasserbau Technische Universitaet Braunschweig Beethovenstr. 51a 38106 Braunschweig GERMANY e-mail: j.aberle@tu-bs.de

	Prof. Clifford Pugh e-mail: cliffordapugh@aol.com
	Prof. V. Nikora University of Aberdeen Engineering Department, Fraser Noble Building Kings College Aberdeen AB243UE, Scotland UNITED KINGDOM phone: +1224 273 830 fax: +1224 272 497 e-mail: v.nikora@abdn.ac.uk

	Cristina di Cristo e-mail: dicristo@unicas.it
	David Admiraal e-mail: dadmiraa@unlnotes.unl.edu
	Ijiro Fujita                  e-mail: ifujita@kobe-u.ac.jp
	Dr. Marian Muste (co-opted member) Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research The University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242-1585 USA Tel.: 319 384 0624 Fax: 319 335 5238 e-mail: muste@uiowa.edu

Working Groups

• Meetings group (leader: Cristiana Di Cristo)
• Database group (leader: Joachim Lengricht)
• Website group (leader: Jochen Aberle)
• Publications group (leader: Ichiro Fujita).

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• IAHR Symposium on Measuring Techniques in Hydraulic Research, Delft, the Netherlands, April 22-24, 1985, Ed. by A.C.E. Wessels. Hardbound 288 pages, Members: NLG 136,-; Non-members: NLG 165,-.From IAHR Secretariat or A.A. Balkema Publishers
• Short course on discharge and velocity measurements, Zürich, Switzerland, August 26-27, 1987. Ed. A. Müller, 1988, 216 pp. Members: NLG 136,-; Non-members: NLG 165,-. From A.A. Balkema Publishers.
• 2nd Int. Conference on Vibration Measurements by Laser Techniques, Ancona, Italy, September 23-25, 1996. From Prof. Tomasini, Conference Chairman, Dept. of Mechanics, University of Ancona, Via Brecce Bianche, I-60131 Ancona, Italy
• SENSOR '97, Nürnberg, Germany, May 13-15, 1997. From: ACS Organisations GmbH, P.O. Box 2352, D-310506 Wunstorf, Germany
• Int. Symposium on Scale Effects in Modelling Sediment Phenomena, Toronto, Canada, August 25-28, 1986, 2 volumes, Members: NLG 80,-; Non-members: NLG 100,-. From IAHR Secretariat
• Int. Symposium on Scale Modelling, Tokyo, Japan, July 18-22, 1988. 437 pages. From Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Sanshin Hokusei Bldg, 4-9, Yoyogi 2 chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
• Int. Symposium on Modelling Soil-Water-Structure Interactions, Delft, The Netherlands, August 29-September 2, 1988. Members: NLG 152,-; Non-members: NLG 190,-. From A.A. Balkema Publishers
• Int. Conference on Physical Modeling of Transport and Dispersion, August 7-10, 1990. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E.Eric Adams, MIT 48-25, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

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• Minutes from Vancouver 2009.
• Seoul Committee Meeting Report, September, 2005
• 2000 Hydroinformatic Proceedings
  The Conference proceedings of the 4th International Conference held from 23-27 July 2000 in Iowa, USA, contain a book (333 pages of abstracts) and full text of all papers on a CD-ROM
  
• 6th International Conference on Hydroinformatics
  Singapore, June 21-25, 2004
  World Scientific Publishing
  http://www.worldscibooks.com/books/engineering/5494.html
  
• Thessaloniki Committee Meeting Report, August, 2003
• Minutes of the Experimental Hydraulics Committee Meeting held on 25, August 2003, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, on the occasion of the 30th IAHR Biennial Congress, August 24-29, 2003.

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• Workshop on erosion testing methods and techniques for cohesive sediments: University of Stuttgart, Germany, May 27 -28, 2008.
• River Flow 2008: Cesme-Izmir, Turkey, September 3 -5, 2008.
• 6th International Symposium on Ultrasonic Doppler Methods in Fluid Engineering and Fluid Mechanics:Prague, Czech Republic, 9 - 11 September, 2008.
• XXVIII International School of Hydraulics: Krag, Poland, September 23 - 26, 2008.
• 33rd IAHR Biennial Congress: Vancouver, Canada, August 10 - 14, 2009.

For further information on upcoming conferences see IAHR and EWRI

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