Facilities

The Institute's research effort is supported by a team of expert technologists, designers and software engineers who manage and operate extensive, state-of-the-art facilities.

Offshore Engineering Basin

IOT's three major test facilities include the Offshore Engineering Basin, one of the world's most advanced basins for testing models of bottom-founded or floating structures and ships. It is equipped with a multi-segmented wavemaker capable of producing long and short-crested waves, as well as current and wind generation systems.

IOT's 200-metre Towing Tank is equipped with a wavemaker and is used for resistance, propulsion, wake survey, flow visualization, sea keeping and other investigations.

With a usable ice sheet 76 meters in length, the Institute's Ice Tank is the longest in the world, providing more data per test run than shorter facilities. Two Cold Rooms support ice-related research, enabling the measurement of mechanical properties of real and model ice.

Cavitation Tunnel

IOT also has a Cavitation Tunnel for propeller cavitation investigations and the study of forces on rudders, fins, submerged bodies, hydrofoils and cable fairings.

The Institute maintains a complete inventory of electronic and electro-mechanical instrumentation required for its test programs, including capacitance probes for wave measurement, strain gauge load cells for force measurement, pressure transducers, and dynamometers for measurement of propeller shaft thrust and torque. It also has electromagnetic and acoustic flow meters, accelerometer arrays for measuring model motions, optical tracking packages for model position and orientation in real time, a radio control and telemetry system for free-running models, and an open water propeller dynamometer for use in either the Towing Tank or Cavitation Tunnel. All facilities are equipped with video cameras.

IOT has capability in all aspects of model construction and has on-site shops for machining, welding, carpentry, fibreglassing and painting. At the core of this capability is a computerized five-axis Milling Machine, used in shaping models of up to 12 metres in length.

Yacht Dynamometer

Several sophisticated pieces of equipment augment the capabilities of the major facilities: the Yacht Dynamometer, which was developed for America's Cup research; the Marine Dynamic Test Facility, capable of evaluating underwater vehicles in six degrees of freedom of motion; and the Planar Motion Mechanism, which provides precise information on the maneuvring ability of vessels, including ice-capable ships.

Planar Motion Mechanism