The small-scale wind-wave flume has been recently built along the existing larger wave and towing tank. The scheme of the facility is given below: 

The Wind-Wave Flume Schematics: 

      CLICK ON IMAGE FOR DETAILED VIEW

Main flume dimentions listed below

total length 7.5 m test section dimentions 5 X 0.4 X 0.53 m water depth from 1 6 up to 22 cm wind speed up to 12 m/s

The wind-wave flume serves to investigate wind-wave excitation.  Study of interaction of wave-maker excited waves with wind, as well as of wind-wave-current interactions is also possible.  

The flume consists of a closed-loop wind tunnel and a wave tank. The closed-loop arrangement helps to retain sufficiently comfortable working conditions for the laboratory personnel and enables control of air temperature and humidity. Both side walls and the floor of the 5 m long test section are made of glass plates. The 0.4 m wide and 0.5 m deep test section is supported by an aluminum frame that allows viewing of the flow from any possible angle. The frame is stably supported by rubber-bottom legs. The rectangular air inlet and the outlet openings are 0.5 m wide and 0.23 m high, thus limiting the maximum water depth to 0.27 m.

Wave energy absorbing beach with the slope of 30^o made of porous packing material is located at the far end of the tank and effectively prevents wave reflection.

The test section ceiling is made of a number of removable Perspex plates with a 3 cm wide partially sealed slot in the center. The slot is used to introduce measuring equipment into the test section. A rail is attached along the whole length of the settling chamber.

A carriage with sensors can move along the rail and be fixed at any desirable location. 

Three holes 1” in diameter made in the tank floor at both ends of the test section allow filling and draining the tank via a fine filter system that includes UV water treatment. A pump used for filling the tank allows also water circulation in the flume in either co- or counter-wind direction to study wind-wave interaction with current.

Large settling chambers with the volume of the order of 1 m³ are located at the inlet and the outlet of the test section. A 5.5 kW 0.9 m in diameter blower equipped with a frequency controller allows obtaining wide range of velocities in the test section, starting from virtually zero (with the air by-pass widely open) up to more than 30 m/s.

The operation of the facility is essentially free of noise due silencing devices installed at both sides of the blower. The output chamber allows drainage of water that may accumulate during the experiments as a result of spraying through an opening in its floor. Care is taken to ensure smooth and horizontal entrance of air flow into the test section. The inlet settling chamber is connected to the test section by a converging nozzle with the area ratio of about 4.0. A flexible plastic sheet provides smooth connection of the bottom of the nozzle to the water level.

A 5 mm cell honeycomb that is 5 cm wide is installed at the entrance to the contraction section. Application of screens allows to control turbulence level of the inflowing air and to vary mean velocity profiles at the inlet. 

A computer-operated wavemaker placed in a sealed box, similar to the design used in our larger wave tank, will be constructed and used at a later stage to excite mechanically either monochromatic gravity-capillary waves, or waves with a prescribed frequency spectrum.