Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #92045
Title: IMPROVED SOFTWARE FOR DESIGN OF LONG-THROATED FLUMES

Author
item WAHL, TONY - BUR OF REC, DENVER, CO
item Clemmens, Albert

Submitted to: Technical Conference on Irrigation Drainage and Flood Control
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource in many regions of the world, particularly arid environments. The ability to measure water accurately aids in the management and allocation of limited water supplies. Significant advancement has been made on the design and construction of accurate, inexpensive, and reliable measuring devices for open channels, namely the long-throated flume. This advancement has been made possible b our ability to predict accurately the calibration for these flumes with a computer program. This paper describes the many advantages of a new program version that has been written for the windows environment. The new version should be useful to those associated with the measurement and allocation of water supplies, more specifically, the Bureau of Reclamation, state water agencies, consulting engineers, water districts and municipalities, U. S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Natural Resources Conservation Service, among others.

Technical Abstract: Long-throated flumes have received increased emphasis in recent years as practical, low-cost, flexible means of measuring open-channel flows in new and existing canal systems (Reclamation, 1997). MS-DOS based software to aid in the design of long-throated flumes has been available for several years from the International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement, and was documented by Clemmens et al. (1993). To facilitate the future use of long-throated flume technology, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Agricultural Research Service are presently rewriting this software to operate in a Windows-based computing environment. The updated software will include significant user-interface improvements and new features, and will overcome an incompatibility between Windows 95 and the copy-protection system used on the current software. Some of the new features will include an improved design optimization scheme, integrated printing of full-scale wall gauges, improved graphics and units system support, a simplified system for saving, retrieving, and sharing flume designs with other users, and an online help system. At this time most of the new features are in place and the software is in a beta-testing phase. The completed software will be released at the end of the beta-test program along with updated printed documentation.