ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book presents current and foreseeable practice in the design and conduct of experiments in hydraulics, including guidelines for selecting and operating instrumentation, for analyzing measurements, and for the use of consistent methods for quantifying and documenting the quality of measurements. Well-conducted laboratory and field experiments play a crucial role in hydraulic research, development and design because many aspects of water flow elude analytical formulation or, for the moment at least, are not readily amenable to numerical simulation. Hydraulic experiments feature prominently in the progress of hydraulic engineering. The various hydraulics- and experimentation-related concepts and terms are defined as the experimental phases are described in the book. The book uses Standard International (SI) units to accommodate a convention widely adopted by the international scientific and practice communities.
