I. Introduction to the Laboratory

The Ship Model Towing Tank Laboratory of Harbin Engineering University originated from the Gravitational Ship Model Towing Tank Laboratory of the Naval Engineering Department of the PLA Military Engineering Institute (Harbin Military Engineering Institute) in 1953. It was established in 1987 and serves as a teaching and research base for ship and ocean engineering fluid mechanics. It is also a formal member of the International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC). Through the construction of the national "211 Project," the laboratory has made significant improvements in main equipment and instruments, experimental data acquisition and processing, and the expansion of experimental capabilities, reaching an advanced level in China.

The laboratory is equipped with a towing tank, a tank trailer system, a wave-making system, a four-degree-of-freedom attitude simulator, data acquisition instruments, a self-propelled system, a 2D/3D PIV testing system, and other advanced facilities in the field of ship research. It can carry out various experimental studies in ship fluid dynamics and ship performance.

II. Experimental Capabilities

The laboratory is responsible for teaching, scientific research, and engineering services. Its main research areas include ship resistance, ship propulsion, and ship seakeeping. Over the years, it has undertaken a large number of hydrodynamic tests and research projects in high-performance new ship types, wave-piercing vessels, multihull ships, ship anti-rolling devices, underwater robotics, ship power positioning, tidal current power station turbine performance testing, etc. The laboratory has completed research on ship anti-rolling experiments, tidal current turbine performance testing, fluid dynamics testing of vertical axis wind turbines, performance research on new ship types and trimaran ships, flow noise testing, hydrodynamic performance research on anti-rolling fins, ship heaving and pitching control technology, high-seakeeping monohull composite ship types and motion performance research, stability research on ship longitudinal supply carriers, hydrodynamic interference research on underwater unmanned platforms, maneuvering research on new deep submersible lifeboats, 70kW tidal current experimental power station research, uncertainty research on ship model resistance experiments, and other national natural science foundation projects, key scientific and technological projects of the "Fifteenth" and "Eleventh Five-Year Plan," national 863 and 973 scientific research projects.

The laboratory conducts undergraduate experiments such as ship model weight, center of gravity, and moment of inertia measurement and adjustment experiments; principle and static calibration experiments of strain gauge force measurement systems; ship model resistance experiments; and ship model roll frequency response experiments. It also conducts open teaching experiments on ship model weight, center of gravity, and moment of inertia measurement and adjustment; computer data acquisition; measurement principles and static calibration of force balance; static hydrodynamic performance measurement of rudder and anti-rolling fins; comparison of ship hull resistance in still water and with appendages; wave-induced resistance measurement of ship model in regular waves; self-propulsion experiments of ship models; research experiments on the mechanism of regular wave generation; and multi-performance observation of flow fields. The laboratory has rich experience in experimental teaching.