IIT-Madras builds Asia’s largest shallow wave basin

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has commissioned Asia’s largest shallow wave basin research facility to cater to research and industry requirements.

The indigenously developed facility is located at Discovery — IIT-M’s satellite campus in Thaiyur, which is in the city’s suburb. The multidirectional shallow wave basin can handle complex wave and current interaction, addressing problems faced by Indian ports, waterways and coastal engineering issues.   

The National Technology Centre for Ports Waterways and Coasts (NTCPWC) has established the facility. The technology arm of the Shipping Ministry, which offers technological support to ports, Inland Waterways Authority of India and other institutions. 

IIT-Madras Ocean Engineering department professor K. Murali said that henceforth, the country need not depend on technology from other countries to generate waves in a laboratory. 

Except for a few items the rest of the componets of the shallow wave basin were made indigenously. “Most of the fabrications of the wavemaker were done in IIT-Madras,” he said.  

Torsten Schlurmann from Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany, that runs the world’s largest wave-current flumes and basins at the university level, said the new research facility would elevate IIT-Madras as a world-class institution for marine science and engineering by facilitating ground-breaking research and international collaboration across disciplines.  

The facility can be used to test varieties of coastal structures, post-impact analysis of coastal structures, large solar floating plants, climate change effects and such. It is one-of-a kind facilities in the world with mobile wave maker. This would enable to carry out multiple projects. 

The learnings from creating such a facility will help IIT-Madras to set up cutting-edge research centres for academic and research purposes, an institute release said.