US Navy tests ships in state of the art "indoor ocean"

[nicehat]

 

 

Inching closer to being able to conquer all that mother nature can dish, the Naval Surface Warfare Center in MD has recently installed 216 state of the art electronically controlled wave boards in  a 12-million-gallon, football-field-size pool  to make the most sophisticated wave testing basin in the world. Scaled down fiberglass models of everything from cruisers to submarines (all scaled down to the size of a canoe) are tested in waves that max out at a few feet high. 

 

The hinged wave boards (ea with its own motor synced up to software) can precisely recreate 8 different ocean conditions (flat and calm all the way to typhoon grade) acoss all 7 seas. This is all important to assess whether missles can be launched on turbulent seas, and if helicoptors can land properly (unlike the navy helicopter accident off the coast of Africa ) 

 

 

 

A relic from the 1960s, the old pneumatic-powered wave system couldn’t replicate complicated open-ocean conditions, which are driven by local winds and far-off hurricanes. The testing team sometimes had to take remote-control models to the actual ocean, scouring weather reports for the perfect chop. Other seafarers have mistaken the models for “Cuban drug-smuggling submarines,” says test director Calvin Krishen. “We hear about it in the bars afterward.”

Salty stories aside, the excursions were not efficient. Simulations in the newly improved freshwater pool (the difference in density between it and saltwater is mathematically accounted for) can cover in six weeks scenarios that took many months of voyaging to recreate. Recently, the Navy tested a missile submarine slated to become operational in 2031. Other tests are classified.

 

At the moment the indoor ocean is programmed to frequencies and wavelengths found in the North Sea. Similar tech has been implemented to make waves like alphabet letters. 

 

Check out the un-embeddable video here

 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/navy-tests-ships-indoor-ocean-180952431/

[Askew]

I didn't realise how big it was at first, then I saw the people on the right of it...

[Deletive]

Wow thats pretty big. don't think it can fit a big vessal in there nicely though

[nicehat]

I didn't realise how big it was at first, then I saw the people on the right of it...

 

Forgot to mention its size...edited

[hammerslap1]

might be fun to go out there on an innertube with a life jacket and see how long you can last in a typhoon

[Real_PhillBert]

Wow thats pretty big. don't think it can fit a big vessal in there nicely though

It's for models. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to fit much of a shit in there lol.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

State of the art? Its from the 60s.

[Deletive]

It's for models. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to fit much of a shit in there lol.

 

Yep thats what I thought but it's huge enough for smaller ones.

[Real_PhillBert]

State of the art? Its from the 60s.

That is all a matter of perspective. North Korea's new submarine was considered obsolete by the Russians in 1956, but their dear leader seems pretty thrilled to have it...

[nicehat]

State of the art? Its from the 60s.

 

You didnt read the part about recently installing equipment to re-create waves and typhoon conditions? 

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Why does this even need to exist when Matlab exists? Seems pretty pointless unless they are leasing it for film sets or something.

 

Even if it was for some reason impossible to do in Matlab, a hydraulic platform would be able to create more sea conditions than this, surely?

[nicehat]

Why does this even need to exist when Matlab exists? Seems pretty pointless unless they are leasing it for film sets or something.

 

They run computer simulations on cars as well. But they still need real life data in wind tunnels. These ships also obviously go through simulations from material science to the end construction, but real life data will always trump simulations any day....because thats where its going to be expected to work

[Real_PhillBert]

Why does this even need to exist when Matlab exists? Seems pretty pointless unless they are leasing it for film sets or something.

 

Even if it was for some reason impossible to do in Matlab, a hydraulic platform would be able to create more sea conditions than this, surely?

The problem with mathematical simulation is not that they are not accurate, but that they are so incredibly dependent on your input criteria. More often then not that input criteria can be incredibly complex and this makes an accurate simulation on this type of scale a very difficult task.

 

As for the hydraulic platform, the larger the scale the more accurate the test as the individual particles of water (and steel for that matter) do not scale.

 

BTW, programs like ANSYS would be a better choice for this type of simulation anyway.

[flibberdipper]

So... It's a big fucking pool with waves?

[WelshDdraig]

That looks pretty bad ass. Still scalled to a size thats fairly large and representable. One day, a person should just fill it full of fish to make it a "real" scalled ocean.

[Scheer]

State of the art? Its from the 60s.

 

If you form the letters together into words and words into sentences you will notice that a mysterious algorithm that states the "relic from the 60's" was the old one that this is replacing.

[OlekKing]

Having some fun with tax money

[Real_PhillBert]

Having some fun with tax money

The gov is getting awfully good at that these days.

[StingBull]

State of the art? Its from the 60s.

 

I guess there isn't enough interest in the "making in-door oceans" business that this is the best we got.

 

[techswede]

The worst thing to hear when working there is probably

"Um.. Boss.. We've.. We've had.. A bit of a leak"

[Imaginaerum]

Having some fun with tax money

I'd rather this than funding the NSA

[Real_PhillBert]

I'd rather this than funding the NSA

Valid point.

[Davehaslanded]

I want to swim through this and have the ships simulate an attempt to take me down while i fight them off so i can feel like some kind of super powerful monster crushing the puny Navy below me. Then just when i think i've won, a guy dressed as gypsy danger joins in and then we have our own Pacific Rim movie on a budget. If only i was a millionaire. This is the kind of crazy shit i would get upto.

[totjup5]

Wow thats pretty big. don't think it can fit a big vessal in there nicely though

In the post it says it's intended for scaled down fiberglass versions of ships.

[DigitalHermit]

I want to swim through this and have the ships simulate an attempt to take me down while i fight them off so i can feel like some kind of super powerful monster crushing the puny Navy below me. Then just when i think i've won, a guy dressed as gypsy danger joins in and then we have our own Pacific Rim movie on a budget. If only i was a millionaire. This is the kind of crazy shit i would get upto.

 

We have a winner!

Use the thing to shoot a sentai-ish kaiju B-movie as a recruitment stunt for the navy.