By Mikael Mulugeta

With contributions from some of the world’s leading hydraulics experts, IIHR Research Engineer Marian Muste has co-authored a two-volume textbook about experimental hydraulics: Experimental Hydraulics: Methods, Instrumentation, Data Processing and Management, published on Aug. 24 by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.

The textbook has 47 contributing authors, four of whom are part of the IIHR research staff. In addition to Muste, IIHR research engineers James Buchholz, Ibrahim Demir, and George Constantinescu contributed to the book. Lead editors include Jochen Aberle, David Admiraal, Robert Ettema (formerly of IIHR), Marcelo Garcia, Dennis Lyn, Vladimir Nikora and Colin Rennie.

Muste began working on the book in 2012 when he realized a course he taught would benefit from a comprehensive textbook on experimental hydraulics. His Experimental Methods in Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer course required a book that covered the phases of experimentation process, from design to data processing, along with the essentials of theoretical background and experimental instrumentation. When he realized the textbook he wanted did not exist, he decided to write it.

Muste reached out to the International Association of Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), a worldwide independent organization of engineers and water specialists. A member of IAHR since 1997 and recent vice president, Muste asked his peers to collaborate with him on the textbook.

“I told them that our community needs this book and we don’t have it,” says Muste. “It’s not about monetary compensation; we are writing this book to contribute something valuable to the hydraulics community.”

Nearly 75% of the textbook’s authors are IAHR members whom Muste calls “the best hydraulics specialists of this generation.” The book launched at the 37^th IAHR World Congress held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August, a biannual event that attracts members from across the globe.

Prior to co-authoring “Experimental Hydraulics,” Muste contributed to several hydraulics textbooks in the United States and his native Romania.

Muste arrived at IIHR in 1991, and by 1995 had received master’s and doctoral degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Iowa. He began teaching at IIHR in 1996 and serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

More information about the book can be found at:  https://www.crcpress.com/9781138027534