International Journal of Engineering and Technology

The incoming air from the atmosphere into the water flow which reaches the bed of the flow > 7% can prevent the cavitation at the bed of the chute spillway channel. At the time of the concentration of air bubbles in the bed flow cannot naturally reach 7 %, then aerator is required at the bottom of the channel, so that the concentration is increased to > 7%.The purpose of this study was to test the aerator effectiveness in increasing the concentration of air bubbles at the bottom of a steep channel. This study used steep channel whose length is 10 m, width 0.2 m, and height 0.4 m, while slope of steep channel is 20º and25º.The discharge is 20.9 l/s.A set of video cameras was used to take a picture of the movement of air bubbles. A Sony ED210 CCTV whose specifications are: indoor, 1/3 "color CCD, 540 TVL resolution, 0.1 lux was used for documentation purpose. The analysis of air bubbles was conducted using aUlead Video Studio 11 equipped with a ImageJ software version 1.43. The results of this study was on the slope of steep channel bed α = 25°, and Q = 20.9 l/s, at a point 7.2 m from the inlet flume on the condition of artificial air entrainment in the downstream flow region after the first aerator was installed, new aerator unit is not required.