This is an overview of a flume at caltech where a long narrow section flows into a large ocean basin. Here, we build deltas with subcritical flow and backwater lengths of ~1m. Sediment & water feed rates are precisely controlled at the upstream end of the narrow section such as to build a normal flow reach in the river section with a specific depth (~1cm) & slope (~3e-3). Bedload transport is maintained under these conditions using sand-sized (0.7mm) walnut shells. Water level in the basin is controlled with an adjustable weir at the far downstream end of the basin. We use overhead cameras to create a timelapse planform delta evolution, & laser & ultrasound altimeters to measure bed & water surface topography.
![photo](/sites/sedexp.umn.edu/files/2023-05/photo.png)
![flumeschematic_bw](/sites/sedexp.umn.edu/files/2023-05/flumeschematic_bw.png)
![scaling](/sites/sedexp.umn.edu/files/2023-05/scaling.png)