4.5 Article

Using a thermal tracer to estimate overland and rill flow velocities

Journal

EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS
Volume 39, Issue 10, Pages 1293-1300

Publisher

WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1002/esp.3523

Keywords

shallow flow velocity; thermal tracer; infrared thermography

Funding

  1. Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [PTDC/ECM/105446/2008]
  2. Operational Programme 'Thematic Factors of Competitiveness' (COMPETE)
  3. European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
  4. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [PTDC/ECM/105446/2008] Funding Source: FCT

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Flow velocity is a basic hydraulic property of surface flows and its precise calculation is necessary for process based hydrological models, such as soil erosion and rill development models, as well as for modelling sediment and solute transport by runoff. This study presents a technique based on infrared thermography to visualize very shallow flows and allow a quantitative measurement of overland flow and rill flow velocities. Laboratory experiments were conducted to compare the traditional dye tracer technique with this new thermal tracer technique by injecting a combined tracer (heated dye) into shallow flowing surface water. The leading edge tracer velocities estimated by means of infrared video and by the usual real imaging video were compared. The results show that thermal tracers can be used to estimate both overland and rill flow velocities, since measurements are similar to those resulting from using dye tracers. The main advantage of using thermography was the higher visibility of the leading edge of the injected tracer compared with the real image videos. Copyright (C) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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