![](/web/20061025165933im_/http://iot-ito.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/images/swoosh.gif)
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](/web/20061025165933im_/http://iot-ito.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/photos/oe_basin.jpg) |
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](/web/20061025165933im_/http://iot-ito.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/photos/cavitation.jpg) |
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](/web/20061025165933im_/http://iot-ito.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/photos/dynamometer.jpg) |
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](/web/20061025165933im_/http://iot-ito.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/photos/planar_motion.jpg) |
Planar Motion Mechanism |
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