Nehunter, I did think about a paddle wheel and/or propellers in a wall. I thought the airlifts would be less maintenance and more aesthetically pleasing, but if they don’t work maybe I will try something like a paddle wheel next.
Bill my thought on the width is that a wider stream would give a slower flow, which would result in less friction between the water and the stream sides, which would result in more water movement. What do you think that? Also the stream is cut into clay and holds water perfectly, so I don’t think a liner is needed, but maybe you see something that I am missing.
Canyoncreek the video DannyMac shared is a good intro. A bunch of studies have been done on the optimal efficiency of airlifts in terms of diameter, injection depth, and volume of air. It was found that the most efficient design was to use a bunch of airlifts in parallel. Despite lots of searching I’ve never seen this tried in practice, so perhaps this will be a first. If so we will see how well it works.
If you want to learn more about airlifts I found this study to be a good intro:
https://www.researchgate.net/public..._of_airlift_pumps_for_field_applications and found this study to have a lot of good quantification around size, injection depth, flow, and lift
https://bunker4.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/7aa388686b57c9183e01efaff8d98641DannyMac your creek sounds impressive. I would love to see a picture. From what I understand airlifts aren’t good in high head scenarios. That’s why my stream design has no slope, it is just flat all the way around. I’m not sure what you mean about starting the creek with a deeper area. Unlike a natural creek where the water comes from run off, I am hopeful that the water being pumped into this stream will already be relatively “clean” and relatively sediment free already. That said I will have a grate in front of the bubble wall to catch big stuff like algae and leaves, which is a big part of the goal of having it. What do you think of this plan?
