Ship model basin

A ship model basin is a physical basin or

tank used to carry out hydrodynamic
tests with ship models, for the purpose
of designing a new (full sized) ship, or
refining the design of a ship to improve
the ship's performance at sea. It can also
refer to the organization (often a
company) that owns and operates such a
facility.
A ship model basin company is an
engineering firm that acts as a contractor
to the relevant shipyards, and provides
hydrodynamic model tests and numerical
calculations to support the design and
development of ships and offshore
structures.

History

12 foot model hulls used by William Froude in scale

model testing of stability, on display in the Science
museum, London.
US Experimental Model Basin, circa 1900

The eminent English engineer, William

Froude published a series of influential
papers on ship designs for maximising
stability in the 1860s. The Institution of
Naval Architects eventually
commissioned him to identify the most
efficient hull shape. He validated his
theoretical models with extensive
empirical testing, using scale models for
the different hull dimensions. He
established a formula (now known as the
Froude number) by which the results of
small-scale tests could be used to
predict the behaviour of full-sized hulls.
He built a sequence of 3, 6 and (shown in
the picture) 12 foot scale models and
used them in towing trials to establish
resistance and scaling laws. His
experiments were later vindicated in full-
scale trials conducted by the Admiralty
and as a result the first Ship model basin
was built, at public expense, at his home
in Torquay. Here he was able to combine
mathematical expertise with practical
experimentation to such good effect that
his methods are still followed today.[1]
The Denny Tank, the world's first commercial testing
tank.

Inspired by Froude's successful work,

shipbuilding company William Denny and
Brothers completed the world's first
commercial example of a ship model
basin in 1883. The facility was used to
test models of a variety of vessels and
explored various propulsion methods,
including propellers, paddles and vane
wheels. Experiments were carried out on
models of the Denny-Brown stabilisers
and the Denny hovercraft to gauge their
feasibility. Tank staff also carried out
research and experiments for other
companies: Belfast-based Harland &
Wolff decided to fit a bulbous bow on the
liner Canberra after successful model
tests in the Denny Tank.[2]

Test facilities
The hydrodynamic test facilities present
at a model basin site include at least a
towing tank and a cavitation tunnel and
workshops. Some ship model basins
have further facilities such as a
maneuvering and seakeeping basin and
an ice tank.
Towing tank

The Ocean Towing Tank - with both towing and wave

making facilities - at University College London

A model being tested in the Towing Tank of

Newcastle University.
Cavitation tunnel of the Versuchsanstalt für

Wasserbau und Schiffbau in Berlin

Cavitating propeller in a water tunnel experiment at

the David Taylor Model Basin

A towing tank is a basin, several metres

wide and hundreds of metres long,
equipped with a towing carriage that runs
on two rails on either side. The towing
carriage can either tow the model or
follow the self-propelled model, and is
equipped with computers and devices to
register or control, respectively, variables
such as speed, propeller thrust and
torque, rudder angle etc. The towing tank
serves for resistance and propulsion
tests with towed and self-propelled ship
models to determine how much power
the engine will have to provide to achieve
the speed laid down in the contract
between shipyard and ship owner. The
towing tank also serves to determine the
maneuvering behaviour in model scale.
For this, the self-propelled model is
exposed to a series of zig-zag
maneuvers at different rudder angle
amplitudes. Post-processing of the test
data by means of system identification
results in a numerical model to simulate
any other maneuver like Dieudonné spiral
test or turning circles. Additionally, a
towing tank can be equipped with a PMM
(planar motion mechanism) or a CPMC
(computerized planar motion carriage) to
measure the hydrodynamic forces and
moments on ships or submerged objects
under the influence of oblique inflow and
enforced motions. The towing tank can
also be equipped with a wave generator
to carry out seakeeping tests, either by
simulating natural (irregular) waves or by
exposing the model to a wave packet
that yields a set of statistics known as
response amplitude operators (acronym
RAO), that determine the ship's likely real-
life sea-going behavior when operating in
seas with varying wave amplitudes and
frequencies (these parameters being
known as sea states). Modern
seakeeping test facilities can determine
these RAO statistics, with the aid of
appropriate computer hardware and
software, in a single test.

Cavitation tunnel

A cavitation tunnel is used to investigate

propellers. This is a vertical water circuit
with large diameter pipes. At the top, it
carries the measuring facilities. A parallel
inflow is established. With or without a
ship model, the propeller, attached to a
dynamometer, is brought into the inflow,
and its thrust and torque is measured at
different ratios of propeller speed
(number of revolutions) to inflow velocity.
A stroboscope synchronized with the
propeller speed serves to visualize
cavitation as if the cavitation bubble
would not move. By this, one can observe
if the propeller would be damaged by
cavitation. To ensure similarity to the full-
scale propeller, the pressure is lowered,
and the gas content of the water is
controlled.
Workshops

Ship model basins manufacture their

ship models from wood or paraffin with a
computerized milling machine. Some of
them also manufacture their model
propellers. Equipping the ship models
with all drives and gauges and
manufacturing equipment for non-
standard model tests are the main tasks
of the workshops.

Maneuvering and seakeeping

basin

This is a test facility that is wide enough

to investigate arbitrary angles between
waves and the ship model, and to
perform maneuvers like turning circles,
for which the towing tank is too narrow.
However, some important maneuvers like
the spiral test still require even more
space and still have to be simulated
numerically after system identification.

Ice tank

An ice tank is used to develop ice

breaking vessels, this tank fulfills similar
purposes as the towing tank does for
open water vessels. Resistance and
required engine power as well as
maneuvering behaviour are determined
depending on the ice thickness. Also ice
forces on offshore structures can be
determined. Ice layers are frozen with a
special procedure to scale down the ice
crystals to model scale.

Software
Additionally, these companies or
authorities have CFD software and
experience to simulate the complicated
flow around ships and their rudders and
propellers numerically. Today's state of
the art does not yet allow software to
replace model tests in their entirety by
CFD calculations. One reason, but not the
only one, is that elementization is still
expensive. Also the lines design of some
of the ships is carried out by the
specialists of the ship model basin,
either from the beginning or by
optimizing the initial design obtained
from the shipyard. The same applies to
the design of propellers.

Examples
The ship model basins worldwide are
organized in the ITTC [1] (International
Towing Tank Conference) to standardize
their model test procedures.

Some of the most significant ship model

basins are:

Current Meter Rating Trolly, CMC

Division, CWPRS Pune, India [2]
SINTEF Ocean, towing tank, ocean
basin, cavitation tunnel [3] in
Trondheim, Norway
High speed towing tank - Wolfson Unit
MTIA [4] - specialists in high
performance power and sail.
the David Taylor Model Basin and the
Davidson Laboratory [5] at Stevens
Institute of Technology in the United
States
the High Speed Towing Tank facility at
Naval Science and Technological Labs
at Vizag India
The Institute for Ocean Technology [6]
in St. Johns, Canada
FORCE Technology [7] in Lyngby,
Denmark
SSPA, [8] in Gothenburg, Sweden
the Laboratory of Naval and Oceanic
Engineering (NAVAL ) of Institute for
Technological Research of São Paulo
(IPT-SP ) in São Paulo, Brazil.
the Maritime Research Institute
Netherlands (MARIN) [9] in
Wageningen, the Netherlands
the CNR-INSEAN [10] in Rome, Italy
the University of Naples Federico II
[11] in Naples, Italy
the SVA Potsdam [12] in Potsdam,
Germany
the HSVA [13] in Hamburg, Germany
 the "Bassin d'essai des carènes" in Val
de Reuil [14] , France
CEHIPAR [15] in Madrid, Spain
CTO S.A. [16] in Gdansk, Poland
FloWaveTT [17] in Edinburgh,
Scotland
Krylov state research centre [18] in
Saint-Petersburg, Russia
National Maritime Research Institute
(NMRI) [19] in Tokyo, Japan
China Ship Scientific Research
Center(CSSRC)[20] in Wuxi, China

References
1. Brown, David K. (2006). The Way of a
Ship in the Midst of the Sea: The Life
 and Work of William Froude .
Penzance: Periscope Publishing.
p. 143. ISBN 1-904381-40-5.
2. "The Scientific and Management
Revolution in Shipbuilding on the
"Two Clydes," 1880-1900" (PDF). The
Nautical Research Guild. Summer
2013.
Ultramarine Inc. web page on vessel
modeling

External links
"Putting More Speed And Power In Our
Navy" , June 1943, Popular Science
large and well illustrated article on
towing basins
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Ship_model_basin&oldid=921453750"

Last edited 23 days ago by EastTN

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