Hydraulics laboratory

Anticipating events

AIN active, in its commitment to quality and specialization, has made a significant investment in a hydraulics laboratory since 2014. Through the combination of various analytical tools, the laboratory carries out validation and optimisation of hydraulic structures both at the design stage and for existing, constructed works.

The main characteristics of the laboratory are as follows:

1.600 m² of equipped surface
Recirculation circuit with a pumping capacity of 500 l/sec
Tanks with a capacity of 100 m³.
Measurement equipment including flow metres, level probes, pressure gauges, velocity metres, cameras, etc.
SCADA system for the monitoring and recording of experimental tests
Software for the development of numerical models (CFD)
PIV tools for the study of velocity fields

The laboratory

Scope of Experimentation

Experimental testing allows the analysis of flow behaviour in hydraulic infrastructure with complex geometries and turbulent or aerated flows, where traditional mathematical formulations fail to provide satisfactory solutions. It represents a powerful analytical tool for the engineer, both at the design stage and during the operational phase.

Physical models

A physical scale model is a scaled representation of a hydraulic structure in which it is possible to simulate its response to design discharges. The strength of this experimental technique lies in the ability to directly visualise the behaviour of the structure, enabling both the validation of designs and the proposal of improvements.

Numerical Models

Numerical modelling (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that employs mathematical algorithms to solve the fundamental equations governing fluid behaviour, principally the Navier–Stokes equations, over a discretised spatial domain. As a result, it is possible to obtain detailed field distributions of variables such as velocity, pressure, and temperature throughout the entire domain, allowing the interpretation of flow behaviour with high spatial and temporal resolution.

PIV Models

The use of PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) tools is a non-intrusive optical measurement technique applied to fluid flows. It enables the measurement of water velocity by means of video recording and subsequent image processing. This approach yields vectorial velocity fields within a physical scale model, thereby complementing the information obtainable from such models.