IDRO (Experimental Hydrodynamics Lab)

The Lab consists of a cavitation tunnel for propeller and wing profile testing and a towing tank. Cavitation Tunnel has a long time experience in measurements of the performances of propellers in cavitation conditions, including side effects such as induced pressures and radiated noise. To this aim pressure sensors and hydrophones are used. Tests have been carried out on different propeller types during years, including conventional FPP and CPP, contrarotating propellers, CLT propellers, ducted propellers, side thrusters, SPP, cooperating with various industries/partners. A specific field of research is focused on the problem of direct measurements of the cavitation volume in model scale, while full scale observations of propeller cavitation have been performed through windows placed on the stern of ships. Finally, tunnel is also equipped with instrumentation for non-intrusive measurement of velocity field, i.e. Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) and Particle Image Velocimetry, PIV), moreover high speed cameras are available. Hydrodynamic Laboratories include also a Towing Tank (dimensions about 60x2.5x3 m) provided with dynamometric carriage (maximum speed about 3 m/s) with capability of measurement of ship trim and resistance.