Large Towing Tank

The large shallow water tank is about 200 m long and 10 m wide with a continuously adjustable water depth between 0 and 1200 mm. This ensures that the water depth in model tests is correct in scale and that the effects resulting from a limited water depth are fully considered. The large shallow water tank allows separately operating two different carriages

The towing carriage has a maximum speed of 6.5 m/s. Most resistance, propulsion and propeller free driving tests are performed for inland and coastal vessels. The models are designed for free-running and bound (captive) tests. A planar motion mechanism serves to conduct manoeuvring tests.

The fast towing carriage with towing speeds of up to 15 m/s permits tests with fast ships, e.g. Yachts, speedboats, ground effect vehicles or seaplanes. This facility can operate together with the large towing carriage and enables at slower speeds the efficient testing of encountering and overtaking manoeuvres with reliable measurements taken on two ship models.

A shallow water wave generator at the end of the large towing tank is capable of generating regular waves as well as wave spectra in different water depths. Besides, tests in head and aft seas, also wave power plants can be analyzed.

Finally, a current can also be generated for the investigation of current energy plants in order to explore the interaction between ships and groynes as well as other hydraulic-engineering constructions.

The large under-floor observation tunnel embodies a special feature to observe the model bottom during test runs. In addition to photo and high-speed video recordings, a PIV measuring procedure can be used if needed.