The measuring devices in use in the maritime laboratory are shortly summarized hereafter:

• wave gauges (several resistive gauges of different length),
• strain gauges (of different shape, weight and design load),
• electronic water discharge measuring instruments,
• pressure transducers,
• displacement meters,
• automatic bottom profilers (laser and touch-sensitive probes),
• a current flow meter (micropropeller),
• an air flow meter,
• digital camera and video recording equipment interfaced with a photographic overlay technique,
• laser level and laser measuring device,
• logging system can sample up to 50kHz,
• the flume and basin are also equipped with suitable software for wave generation and data acquisition from all instruments, and for the analyses of the results with the most updated methods,
• energy backup system of 20 minutes,
• workstation for numerical simulations equipped with Tesla K80 GPU card,
• Control rooms are equipped with wired and wi-fi internet and intranet connections.

The Wallingford Wave Generation Software is used to operate the wave makers both in the basin and in the flume, capable of reproducing regular and irregular waves.
Irregular waves are typically generated according to a JONSWAP spectrum using a white noise filter with random phase and amplitude, with a cycle of 20 minutes. The software can generate other standard or custom defined spectra.
A self-made software has been developed to generate waves correct at second order for research testing. A hardware wave absorption system is present, installed at the wave flume.

Resistive wave gauges

2D bed profiling system

Displacement meters (left) and micropropeller (right)

Strain gauge