The Dynamic Revetment is here!

Today's the day, what we've all been waiting for, the dynamic revetment!
We no longer need to stop and start all the instruments, therefore completing the profiles in-between each run goes a lot faster! So fast, that we are ahead of schedule again, completing all of DR1.
This meant we also had time to attempt the first trial of using the antenna to locate the pebbles in the revetment.
For those of you who are unaware, I shall quickly explain how this part of the experiment works.
The dynamic revetment consists of 9 m^3 pebbles, 5 m long shore and 7 m cross-shore (fig.1). This is meant to act as a defence from storms along the coast. The reason why it is called 'dynamic' is because (hopefully) the waves are meant to crash onto the revetment causing the pebbles to roll back landwards. Therefore the revetment is self maintained, causing it to be a cheaper alternative sea defence in the future. We have 97 seperate pebbles which have been painted either green (layer 1), orange (layer 2) or pink (layer 3). These pebbles have been implemented into the cross-shore center line of the revetment, depending on which layer they are in (either 1, 2 or 3). Each of these pebbles have a transponder located inside (so we can use the antenna to detect and locate them). These pebbles will then represent each layer of the dynamic revetment (dynarev), and hopefully we will be able to track where they move. This process will be done at the end of each test e.g. DR1, DR2 etc.

Fig.1 - The dynamic revetment in all its glory (yellow line indicating the crest of the revetment). You can just about see the green pebbles dotted around in the middle cross-shore section. 

Fig.2 - The green pebbles with transponders located inside.

Fig.3 - After a few hours of waves- loosing quite a few pebbles to the flume!

Fig.4 - Paul fixing the reader for the transponders,
 after he managed to drop it...not to worry everyone, it still works!

Fig. 5 - Paul attempting to locate the pebbles, the long pole is proving difficult to control.

Fig. 6 - Jens came up with the brilliant idea of attaching some rope to the end of the antenna and hold it the other side of the flume to support the pole, preventing it from wobbling around - worked a treat!