Technical University of Madrid
Naval Architecture Department
- Model Basin Research Group -
INSEAN, Istituto Nazionale di Studi ed Esperienze di
Architettura Navale, is the Italian ship model basin. Established in
1927, it represents the oldest institute of its kind in Italy. It is a
public research center under the supervision of the Italian Ministry of
Defence and Ministry of Transports.
The core task of INSEAN is the experimental and theoretical analysis of
ship models and their propulsion and control systems in order to meet
the requests of the Navy technical office, of public Administrations,
shipbuilding companies, shipowners and other private industries.
INSEAN is also involved in promoting research, education and training,
and in cooperating with Italian and foreign Institutions and
Organizations operating in the field of naval architecture.
Research is essentially devoted to the development and implementation
of advanced experimental and theoretical techniques. The activity is
divided into five main areas: Resistance and Optimization, Propulsion
and Cavitation, Seakeeping and Manoeuvrability, Hydroacoustics and
Vibrations, Advanced CFD Modelling.
Main experimental facilities include two towing tanks and a pressurized
circulating water channel. Tank No. 1, one of the largest worldwide, is
460 m long, 13.5 wide and 6.5 m deep. It is equipped with a towing
carriage that can achieve a speed of 15 m/s. Tank No. 2 has smaller
dimensions and carriage maximum speed. It is equipped with wave
generators for both regular and non-regular wave patterns for
seakeeping and ride comfort tests. The circulating water channel has a
10 x 3.6 x 2.2 m test section and is suitable to reproduce free surface
flows around large size ship models and to perform cavitation tests.
INSEAN staff is about 150 full time equivalent employees, whose 35% is
represented by research staff and 35% is represented by technicians.
At the present, INSEAN is involved into several national and
international joint research programs.
Key Person : Roberto Penna
Roberto Penna got a degree of naval architect at Politecnico Federico
II in Naples, with a thesis on high CB VLCC systematic series presented
in 1981. After a stage in 1982 at CETENA as researcher, he got his
first job in Fincantieri Shipyard of Ancona form 1983 to 1985. From
here, he moved to INSEAN, working as a naval architect, in towing
tanks. From 1998 to 2003 he has amongst his responsibilities the Towing
Tanks plant. He has participated in many international research
projects. From 1999 to 2002 he was involved in an international
cooperative project between INSEAN, Iowa Institute of Hydraulic
Research (IIHR), David Taylor Model Basin (DTMB) on experimental and
computational fluid dynamics and uncertainty assessment for a combatant
geometry.
Model Basin Research Group (CEHINAV)
- Naval Architecture Department (ETSIN)
Technical University of Madrid (UPM)
Arco de la Victoria s/n. - 28040 Madrid - Spain
Tel : +34913367156 Fax :
+34915442149