Towing tank upgrade

摘要

And that is why the towing tank at the Faculty of 3mE is in need of an upgrade, explains new faculty head Professor Cornel Thill. He is witnessing an increasing demand for rapid water travel. Customs officers want to be able to travel at 70 knots (126 km/h), otherwise they can be outrun by smugglers. The Navy also needs fast ships for interventions all around the world. Also ferry connections need to be quick and comfortable, the latest example being the Bres-kens-Vlissingen ferry, with its twin hull resembling two narrow submerged torpedoes (known as a Small Wa-terplane Area Twin Hull, aka SWATH). And we have yet to mention the speedy transit ships that will be needed for the construction of the five offshore wind farms destined to be built off the Dutch coast. Rapid water travel is clearly on the rise, but how can it be made safe and comfortable? At high speeds on water, the blows can have quite an impact. Acceleration exceeding gravity by ten times is not uncommon. And that is why captains used to like to stand on a wooden crate, explains Thill. If the boat took a heavy hit, it was better to fall through a crate than risk damaging your knees. It was a similar accident that inspired Thill's predecessor, Dr Lex Keuning, to develop the axe bow for fast travelling ships. Tests in the towing tank can replicate behaviour at high speeds and in rough seas. But no longer effectively enough, believes Thill, who previously worked at the Marin Deep Water Towing Tank (Wageningen) and managed the towing tank in Duisburg. As part of the upgrade envisaged by Thill, the current vessel will be replaced by a lighter version that can reach a top speed of 15 m/s within a few seconds of measurement time when towed along the length of the 142m-long tank. This would enable the Delft towing tank to make its way back into the top echelons of maritime research. Thill argues that the current tank fails to distinguish itself sufficiently from what is also possible elsewhere. With this aim in mind, a post-doc has commenced preliminary research.