UGEMS is an adaptation of the Gust Microcosm using a combination of a spinning disk and a central suction to generate nearly uniform shear stress across sediments in a cylindrical container, designed to measure the erodibility of fine-grained sediments in a 10 cm core tube(larger core diameters available upon request) over a calibrated range of shear stresses from 0.01 – 0.6 Pa.

The system provides all of the automation, control, and data logging capabilities to conduct erodibility experiments either aboard a research vessel or in the lab.

The components of the system have been integrated so that the user can input the desired shear stress (t_b in Pascals). The system adjusts the disk spin rate and pumping rate to the proper setting and the data from the turbidimeter(s) and the motor speed output will be recorded to a data file. Effluent water from the experiment is collected and analyzed for Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and used in the post-experiment data analysis.