Wave Maker for Harbor Models

Laura Rozumalski and  Eli Goldberg

We are students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. We put together this project for Chin Wu’s Coastal Engineering class. 

The motivation behind the construction of our wave maker was to model a harbor and provide a useful tool for future students.

Throughout the process we learned a lot about the logistics of making scientific testing apparatus.  In short, it’s not easy, and although our wave maker isn’t the prettiest thing on the planet, it fulfills its purpose.

The main attribute of our wave maker is that it is very versatile.  Since it is free-standing and unattached to one specific tank, it can be used for just about anything that future students will dream up.  It will be very handy for different types of projects for many semesters to come.

 

Different types of sediments can be added to the tank that is connected to the wave maker and analyses can be done on sediment movement related to wave motion.  Probably most exciting is that different types of harbor setups can be attached to the wave maker and harbor designs can be analyses.  Various structures can be added to the model, such as seawalls, bulkheads, revetments, breakwaters, piers, and more.  This allows actual conditions to be analyzed, designed for, and then physically tested.

 

This web page contains a list of the objectives, the methods and procedures involved in making our wave maker, and some photos and movies of the final project.

 

 

 

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