Sometimes we come across an installation in the field where we want to show you have others have solved problems that you may be wrestling with.  On a recent site visit, a customer showed us a discharge chute that they had developed to minimize erosion downstream of their Parshall Flume.

When the concrete discharge was initially installed, water levels were higher than what the customer has been seeing for the last several years.  As a result, the discharge coming out of the Parshall Flume was spilling into the discharge, but was then dropping into the channel bank.  Erosion was starting to be a serious concern, with the fear that the concrete discharge would be undermined.  

The steep slope of the surrounding banks was going to make it a difficult site to try and install riprap.  The front-end loader arm wouldn’t be able to reach far enough out to armor the areas most at risk.

What the customer developed was a galvanized sheet metal chute to that attaches to the concrete discharge structure.  Flow is directed from the discharge structure into the chute, which in turn discharges flow at the now lower, normal water level.  A sufficient amount of energy is dissipated into the receiving waters that armoring of the channel bank is no longer a concern.

In looking at the photo, there is one other thing to note:  both top stiffening angles over the throat and discharge of the flume are showing signs of UV deterioration. This is common when fiberglass is not protected with UV inhibitors in the resin or gel coat.  The angles are apparently hand laid (versus mass produced pultrusion which include UV inhibitors). 

Small details like this differentiate Openchanneflow’s flumes from those of our competitors.    Although many of the changes that we make are small, the total sum is, frankly, a superior product.