Dynamometer Commissioning for Yacht Testing Towing Tank

Southampton Solent University have a 60m long yacht testing towing tank available for hire. Features include:

60m in length, 3.7m wide and 1.8m deep.
Carriage top speed of 4.0m/s.
Computer-controlled wave generator.
Test scale models up to 2m in length and 50kg in weight.
Test wave and tidal renewable energy devices.
Can be used for instrument calibration.

The hull models are mounted on a dynamometer suspended from the rolling carriage. Following purchase of a new dynamometer, we were tasked with commissioning the data acquisition software. The Cussons device interfaces to a PersonalIDAQ USB data acquisition system from Measurement Computing via an Excel plug-in.

An initial specification was generated following a requirements analysis stage. Following stages included planning, implementation, documentation and training.

The resulting solution delivered a much enhanced data acquisition system meeting the extremely bespoke needs of the client.