Department of Ocean Engineering, University of Rhode Island – Wave Tank
- Indoor wave tank or basin testing
- Tow tank testing
- WEC hydrodynamics
Description
The University of Rhode Island (URI) operates the Wave and Tow Tank in the Department of Ocean Engineering, hosted at the Narragansett Bay Campus. The wave tank is 30 m long, 3.6 m wide and 1.8 m deep with a hinged, flapper style hydraulic wave maker at the end. The LabVIEW and MATLAB based control system are capable of producing both regular and irregular waves in a wide array of wave heights and periods; the achievable range for the wave height and the wave period are 0-0.30 m and 0.5 to 2 s, respectively. The Wave Tank has 20 m of adjustable beach for different shoaling profiles and a 2 m/s towing carriage. Wave gauges, pressure sensors, and force transducers are available to use the Wave Tank. The Wave Tank is used for a broad range of testing, including work on wave energy extraction, turbines (using towing carriage), acoustic measurement of surface waves, and wave-induced forcing on marine structures.
Point of Contact:
Reza Hashemi – reza_hashemi@uri.edu