The Hydraulic Laboratory has 3,000 square meters of floor space available and the opportunity and capacity to build models that few others can offer. The laboratory is well equipped and a world leader in its field.

A wide range of activities take place in the hydraulic laboratory:

• Teaching of bachelor's and master's students
• Research related to master's theses and doctoral studies
• Assignments and other commercial experiments

Typical experiments conducted in the laboratory include:

• Flood spillway capacity: Today's spillways are built to handle less water than we experience today. Therefore, it is important to test how much they can withstand and how large they should be built in the future.
• Sediment experiments
• Flood protection measures and Flood and landslide property studies  
• Intakes for power plants: The goal is to minimize energy loss and prevent objects like trees, branches, and fish from getting stuck in the intake and blocking flow.
• Environmental solutions: This includes studying how facilities should be operated to create good conditions for fish in rivers. Fish migration is a relatively large area of study.

The experiments in the laboratory are primarily carried out by PhD and master’s students under supervision. This gives students valuable experience. In addition, skilled technicians ensure that the models are built and maintained.

Innovation:
The Hydraulic Laboratory is an important arena for the development of entirely new solutions in hydropower and hydraulic engineering. Based on the models, a great deal of innovation and testing takes place that would be impossible to carry out in an existing power plant.

The Hydraulic Laboratory has an area of 3,000 m² – of which 2,000 m² can be used for custom-built hydraulic models. The lab has facilities for education, research, and commercial projects with clients from all over the world. State-of-the-art models can be created in-house, as the laboratory includes a machine workshop and a dedicated workshop for wood and plastic.

There are three permanent channels, including a tilting flume for simulating steep slopes and sediment research. The laboratory is highly flexible and supports all forms of hydraulic research, including sediment transport, flow analysis, slope stability, hydropower structures, and studies in hydropower dynamics.