Wave Flume

These facilities are integral to research in coastal engineering, supporting both academic investigations and industry collaborations.

Operational since March 2003, the large wave flume facilitates large-scale physical modeling of coastal processes, including wave overtopping, wave impacts on sea defence structures and nature based solutions (e.g. wind cables protection), and the stability of breakwaters.

The wave flume is 30.0 m long, 1.0 m wide, and 1.2 m high, with a water depth of 0.8 m. Waves are generated through a piston-type wave paddle driven by an electro servo motor, capable of generating both regular and irregular waves with a maximum stroke length of 1.5 m. The facility is integrated with advanced data acquisition systems and in-house developed software for wave generation and analysis.

There is also a smaller wave flume (15 m  long) available, primarily used for educational purposes, allowing students to explore wave dynamics and wave-structure interactions and a mobile wave flume is a transportable demonstration tool designed to showcase wave dynamics and coastal engineering research to a broader audience, including schools, companies, and at networking events.