Innovative experiments for investigating maritime hydrodynamic problems

The past two decades has seen a marked shift in the primary purpose of performing physical scale model experiments in hydrodynamic facilities to help solve a range of maritime hydrodynamic problems. It is now commonplace for experimental programs to utilise complex measurement techniques to investigate highly non-linear phenomena, often to provide high-quality data from a controlled environment to aid the validation of numerical techniques, such as potential flow and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models. This has resulted in a significant increase in the usefulness of relatively small- to medium-sized experimental facilities due to their versatility and cost effectiveness in (a) developing and verifying innovative measurement techniques, and (b) applying these techniques to perform complex experiments to solve hydrodynamic problems for the maritime industry. This paper presents examples of several state-of-the-art measurement techniques that can now readily be performed within the National facilities at the Australian Maritime College, including the 100 m long towing tank and 35 m long x 12 m wide shallow water wave basin. Also described are examples of how these techniques have recently been applied to a range of industry-driven research projects.