The Coastal & Ocean Basin (COB) is a wave tank with unique features that is managed by a consortium composed of Ghent University, KU Leuven and Flanders Hydraulics. The COB welcomes users from academia, industry and governmental institutions, with the opportunity to develop and test innovative designs for coastal protection, offshore structures and marine renewable energy devices.
Main characteristics
- Basin dimensions (L x W x H) : 30 x 30 x 2.3 m
- Variable water depth (0.3 – 1.4 m) with a central pit of up to 4 m deep
- Wave heights up to 0.55 m
- Currents up to 0.4 m/s
- Wave-current interaction in any relative direction
Wave generation
- Piston type wave paddles
- L-shaped wavemaker (20 x 20 m)
- Regular and irregular, first and second order, directional, shortcrested waves, 2 sea states
- Active wave absorption
Current generation
- Propeller type current generation
- Flexible current direction
- Excellent quality velocity profile
- Suppression of spurious flows
Wide fields of application
- Coastal structures
- Offshore structures
- Ocean energy
- Floating structures & mooring applications
- Nature based coastal defense solutions
- Testing of observation equipment
