Laboratory Tests

The laboratories of Flanders Hydraulics Research and Ghent University provide wave flume facilities in which scale models of a typical Belgian dike including the beach in front of it can be constructed. These physical models have the advantage of controlled circumstances but the disadvantage that they suffer from scale and other model effects (no wind effect, no currents, fine sand, etc.). The smaller the scale, the more difficult to cope with these effects. Some parameters (e.g. grain size) are too small to be downscaled realistically in small wave flumes. Next to this the wind tunnel at KU Leuven will be used for simulating wind impact on sediment transport.