A class of portable, long-throated flumes, the RBC is a relatively recent (1984) flume developed to measure flows in earthen channels and furrows by researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the International Institute for Land Reclamation.

Named for its developers, Messer's Replogle, Bos, and Clemmens, the RBC Flume is a series of 5 different flumes intended to be highly portable, easy to make, and extremely accurate.

The RBC Flume has a constant, truncated V-shape allowing it to conform to the typical shape of furrows and irrigation channels.  The throat of the flume consists of a sloped ramp (similar to a Palmer-Bowlus Flume).  

As a long-throated flume, the RBC Flume can be designed and calibrated using computer analysis. This analysis eliminates the need to laboratory or field rate new or nonstandard RBC flumes sizes with excellent accuracy.

Like its short-throated brethren, the Trapezoidal and Cutthroat flumes, the flat floor of the RBC Flume makes it less expensive to install or retrofit into existing channels.

As with other long-throated flumes, the RBC Flume has a high modular limit (submergence transition) of 90%.  

RBC Flume Materials

Openchannelflow manufactures RBC Flumes in several different materials:

• Aluminum
• Fiberglass (FRP)
• Galvanized steel
• Stainless steel

RBC Flume Accessories

Although not as extensive as those for our other flumes, Openchannelflow has developed several accessories for our RBC Flumes, including:

• Wing walls connections
• Flow condition options
• Flowmeter mounts
• Sampler / parameter mounts

RBC Flume Applications

• Watershed Monitoring
• Edge-of-Field Runoff
• Irrigation canals
• Dam Seepage