The Water Management Experimental Centre of the Faculty of Civil Engineering CTU is a facility used by the different branches of the field of water management and hydraulic structures. It offers a place and technical grounds for basic and applied research, as well as for experimental teaching. The hydraulic engineering laboratory is used by students of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral study programmes.
The Water Management Experimental Centre (VEC) mostly cooperates with four specialized departments – the Department of Hydraulics and Hydrology, the Department of Hydraulic Structures, the Department of Landscape Water Conservation and the Department of Sanitary and Ecological Engineering. Various research activities, which are then further elaborated at the laboratory, arise from their specialized fields of focus.
In 2019, the hydraulic engineering laboratory VEC underwent an extensive reconstruction. Within the reconstruction, the hydraulic flume of dimensions 1 x 15 meters was fully repaired, the measuring technology was supplemented and even the technological grounds of the laboratory underwent renovation. The reconstruction improved the quality and the comfort of the environment for research and teaching.
At the time of filming at the VEC premises, there could be seen 14 physical models and parts of experimental workplaces such as the laboratory rainfall simulator or the equipment for the research of turbine characteristics for hydroelectric power plants. The coordination of activities is supervised by the head of VEC Ing. Milan Zukal, Ph.D.
In the video you will find out what models of hydraulic structures are being created here, for example, and why it is still necessary to make physical models instead of just simply using numerical modelling.