Waves reflect off the surfaces of the model and from sides of the tank. This can be a major limitation on towing tanks where the productively of the whole facility is determined by the settling time after a run has been completed. All tanks have resonant frequencies and often these lie within the working frequencies that are generated in the tank. A good beach will absorb much of the energy after is has passed the model but has little effect on cross-waves or models reflected from the model. Wave makers incorporate proven software techniques for wave generator control and can include software links to towing carriages to optimise test duration. Wave Technology is a rapidly advancing science new or modified products are continually being developed to meet unique experimental needs, including those associated with the offshore industrys deep-sea exploration research programmes. Active absorbing wavemakers dramatically increase the performance of a tank by prolonging the time that an experiment can run without the build up of spurious waves and also by decreasing the settling time between runs.
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