The David Taylor Model Basin (DTMB) is one of the largest
ship model basin
A ship model basin is a basin or tank used to carry out hydrodynamic tests with ship models, for the purpose of designing a new (full sized) ship, or refining the design of a ship to improve the ship's performance at sea. It can also refer to th ...
s—test facilities for the development of ship design—in the world. DTMB is a field activity of the
Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center
The Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center is one of eight Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Surface Warfare Centers. The headquarters is located in Carderock, Maryland with the historic David Taylor Model Basin. The division ...
.
History
In 1896,
David Watson Taylor
David Watson Taylor (March 4, 1864 – July 28, 1940) was a U.S. naval architect and an engineer of the United States Navy. He served during World War I as Chief Constructor of the Navy, and Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair. Ta ...
designed and supervised construction of the
Washington Navy Yard
The Washington Navy Yard (WNY) is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy.
The Yard currently serves as a ceremonial and administrativ ...
's Experimental Model Basin which was at that time the best facility in the world. That facility was a significant design testing capability before, during, and after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Inadequacies in that facility led the navy to look for a new model capability.
The new navy modeling facility – named for David Taylor – was built in 1939 in today's community of
Carderock just west of
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...
in
Montgomery County. The Carderock facility contains multiple test basins (towing tanks for models) designed for a variety of testing capabilities. DTMB has strongly influenced naval architecture for 70 years.
Technical capabilities
Three adjoining sections comprise the Shallow Water Basin: deep water, shallow water, and a -shaped
turning basin
A turning basin, winding basin or swinging basin is a wider body of water, either located at the end of a ship canal or in a port to allow cargo ships to turn and reverse their direction of travel, or to enable long narrow barges in a canal to tur ...
used for steering maneuvers. Its carriage can provide speeds up to 18
knots
A knot is a fastening in rope or interwoven lines.
Knot may also refer to:
Places
* Knot, Nancowry, a village in India
Archaeology
* Knot of Isis (tyet), symbol of welfare/life.
* Minoan snake goddess figurines#Sacral knot
Arts, entertainme ...
.
The Deep Water Basin wavemaker located along the side, and a
wave
In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (res ...
absorbing beach at the other. The wavemaker consists of 216 electro-mechanical panels called wave boards.
This capability allows modeling of regular or irregular sea states. Located behind a movable section of the beach is a fitting out
dry dock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
. Its carriage can provide speeds up to 20 knots.
The High-Speed Basin comprises two adjoining sections: a deep water section and a shallow water section. Wavemaking capability exists in this basin, and there are three large underwater viewing windows at different elevations which are set into the wall about mid-length. The high-speed carriages can provide complex motions for the model at speeds up to 50 knots.
Computing
The David Taylor Model Basin was an early adopter of computers, and an active site for computer technology. Represented by
Betty Holberton
Frances Elizabeth Holberton (March 7, 1917 – December 8, 2001) was an American computer scientist who was one of the six original programmers of the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, ENIAC. The other five ENIAC programmers wer ...
, it was one of three government agencies present at the 1959 meeting where the computer language
COBOL
COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily us ...
was created.
It also had one of the two
UNIVAC LARC
The UNIVAC LARC, short for the ''Livermore Advanced Research Computer'', is a mainframe computer designed to a requirement published by Edward Teller in order to run hydrodynamic simulations for nuclear weapon design. It was one of the earliest s ...
s that were built.
Significant naval contributions
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Taylor Model BasinCarderock Division, Naval Surface Warfare CenterAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers*, at Maryland Historical Trust
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Bethesda, Maryland
Military facilities on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
Ship design
United States Navy installations
Art Deco architecture in Maryland
Government buildings completed in 1938
Infrastructure completed in 1938
National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Maryland
Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks