News Release

Datla awarded grant to support planer motion research

Grant will bring new and unique capabilities to Stevens' towing tank

Grant and Award Announcement

Stevens Institute of Technology

Hoboken, N.J. -- The Office of Naval Research recently awarded Professor Raju Datla, Research Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ocean Engineering Department and Davidson Laboratory at Stevens Institute of Technology, with a $500,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program Grant for instrumentation that will bring new and unique capabilities to Stevens' towing tank.

ONR's funding will support Datla's research into "Planar Motion Mechanism (PMM) for Nonlinear Maneuvering of Surface and Submersible Bodies." The PMM is a tow-carriage mounted, computer-controlled instrument that superimposes unsteady motions on a towed model advancing at forward speed. The addition of a PMM to the renovated high-speed towing tank will expand the scope of model-testing currently being performed to include investigation of unsteady maneuvering effects thus providing a unique testing capability not found at other academic institutions.

"One of the objectives of this project is to increase and enhance the database of such information for the US Navy," said Dr. Michael Bruno, Director of the Center for Maritime Systems at Stevens. "Currently, very little maneuvering data for high speed craft is available."

As part of the ongoing ONR SwampWorks Swimmer Detection Project, future use of the PMM will involve AUV low-speed maneuvering studies with a focus on applications for the swimmer detection platform. Use of the PMM will also include high-speed nonlinear maneuvering research involving unconventional (n-hull) multi-hull concepts.

###

About Stevens Institute of Technology
Established in 1870, Stevens offers baccalaureate, masters and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science, management and technology management, as well as a baccalaureate in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. Located directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, the university has enrollments of approximately 1,780 undergraduates and 2,700 graduate students, and a current enrollment of 2,250 online-learning students worldwide. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.Stevens.edu.

For the latest news about Stevens, please visit www.StevensNewsService.com.


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.