The David Taylor Model Basin (DTMB) is one of the largest

ship model basin A ship model basin is a basin or tank used to carry out hydrodynamic tests with ship models, for the purpose of designing a new (full sized) ship, or refining the design of a ship to improve the ship's performance at sea. It can also refer to ...

s—test facilities for the development of ship design—in the world. DTMB is a field activity of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

History

In 1896, David Watson Taylor designed and supervised construction of the

Washington Navy Yard The Washington Navy Yard (WNY) is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy. The Yard currently serves as a ceremonial and administra ...

's Experimental Model Basin which was at that time the best facility in the world. That facility was a significant design testing capability before, during, and after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Inadequacies in that facility led the navy to look for a new model capability. The new navy modeling facility – named for David Taylor – was built in 1939 in today's community of Carderock just west of

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

Montgomery County Montgomery County may refer to: Australia * The former name of Montgomery Land District, Tasmania United Kingdom * The historic county of Montgomeryshire, Wales, also called County of Montgomery United States * Montgomery County, Alabama * Mon ...

. The Carderock facility contains multiple test basins (towing tanks for models) designed for a variety of testing capabilities. DTMB has strongly influenced naval architecture for 70 years.

Technical capabilities

Three adjoining sections comprise the Shallow Water Basin: deep water, shallow water, and a -shaped turning basin used for steering maneuvers. Its carriage can provide speeds up to 18 knots. The Deep Water Basin wavemaker located along the side, and a

wave In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (r ...

absorbing beach at the other. The wavemaker consists of 216 electro-mechanical panels called wave boards. This capability allows modeling of regular or irregular sea states. Located behind a movable section of the beach is a fitting out

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

. Its carriage can provide speeds up to 20 knots. The High-Speed Basin comprises two adjoining sections: a deep water section and a shallow water section. Wavemaking capability exists in this basin, and there are three large underwater viewing windows at different elevations which are set into the wall about mid-length. The high-speed carriages can provide complex motions for the model at speeds up to 50 knots.

Computing

The David Taylor Model Basin was an early adopter of computers, and an active site for computer technology. Represented by Betty Holberton, it was one of three government agencies present at the 1959 meeting where the computer language

COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily ...

was created. It also had one of the two

UNIVAC LARC The UNIVAC LARC, short for the ''Livermore Advanced Research Computer'', is a mainframe computer designed to a requirement published by Edward Teller in order to run hydrodynamic simulations for nuclear weapon design. It was one of the earlie ...

s that were built.

Significant naval contributions

References

External links