A tabletop water channel you can build yourself.
Hardware, firmware, and software are documented and free to reproduce. Every version is published with CAD, BoM, manuals, and bring-up notes.
Versions.
Hardware V1
NewSecond-generation tabletop water channel featuring better flow characteristics in the test section, simplified manufacturing and assembly, and tool-less maintenance.
Hardware V0
First hardware iteration of a low-cost tabletop water channel. Manufacturing, manuals, and CAD are all open and reproducible from the files below.
How our channel compares.
None of the existing open-source or commercial water channels fulfil all the requirements for active fluids control research. They mostly sit at extremes — FlumeX is modular and easy to build and use, but has a very small test section without calibration. The SUNY Flume is bulky and complex to manufacture, yet provides a large test section. Our tabletop water channel closes this gap: a compact, low-cost, fully open-source setup designed so that machine-learning and control researchers can iterate quickly on real fluid flows — without needing dedicated lab space, specialized training, or massive facilities.
Click a legend item to isolate a channel. On the Cost and Setup Size axes, lower values indicate more affordable and more compact designs.
- ~CHF 15,000 · 140 × 125 mm section · 1.2 × 0.15 m footprint
Educational, tabletop water channel with a ready-to-go PIV system. Designed for tool-less assembly and minimal maintenance, but only sold as-is — modifications require figuring out all mounting interfaces, and no bill of materials is available.
- ~$5,600 · 150 × 150 mm section · 2.5 × 2.3 m footprint
Educational, medium-sized flume with a large test section and high flow speeds. Welded-steel construction weighing 450 kg, susceptible to rust. Significant noise in the test section due to the powerful pump and minimal flow straightening.
- ~$500 · 50 × 50 mm section
Designed for oceanic and coral reef studies. Made from plastic piping, acrylic, and 3D-printed parts. Highly modular and low-cost, but the test section is too small for active fluids control and there are no flow conditioning devices.
- ~$1,300 · ~25 cm² section · ~2 m² footprint
Inexpensive and very well-documented, with manufacturing videos and a complete bill of materials. FDM-printed with hand-cut acrylic sheets. Multiple problems with leakage are reported, and the contraction from stacked acrylic sheets calls flow surface smoothness into question.