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Model testing at the Offshore Technology Research Center.

 

Centers and Laboratories

The Ocean Engineering Program participates in several research centers and laboratories associated with Texas A&M University

We are also the home to several other significant research facilities

Ocean Engineering Wave Tank

The Ocean Engineering Wave Tank is a fluid mechanics laboratory housed in the Civil Engineering Laboratory Building, CVLB 109. This laboratory is used both for graduate research programs and the undergraduate fluid dynamics laboratory (CVEN 336).

The laboratory houses a glass walled 2D wave tank that is 115 feet long, 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep. A variable height random deepwater wave generator is capable of making wave heights of 10 inches in 3 feet of water. The wave tank also has a 6 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and 2 feet deep sediment pit approximately 40 feet from the wave maker. It has a beach (3.3:1), beach wave absorber nd a portable 30:1 beach. A towing carriage is mounted on rails and has a variable speed drive with maximum speed of 2 ft/s.

A new research tank in the laboratory is a 2 m long by 1 m wide by 1.3 m deep glass-walled experimental tank. The tank is designed for conducting Particle Image Velocimetry measurements of multiphase plume flows.

Measurement technology in the laboratory includes several sophisticated systems. A 3D Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) is installed in the lab with fiber-optic cables so that velocity measurements can be made at any point along the glass-walled flume. The laser can also be used for Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) measurements. A dual-head, high-powered Nd:YAG laser is available with 10 bit and 12 bit cameras for Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The laboratory also has data acquisition and control hardware, a vibration free optical table, wave gauges, and other equipment needed in ocean engineering research.

Wave flume in the ocean engineering wave tank laboratory.

Classroom facilities in the ocean engineering wave tank laboratory.