M Ship’s Rapid Empirical Innovation (REI) Open Water Model Test Platform

M-Ship Co. has developed an innovative Rapid Empirical Innovation (REI) approach to open-water ship model testing with the goal of providing a system targeted towards rapid, low cost ship design. The system is designed to provide test data quality close to that of a towing tank, at a substantially lower cost. It is capable of both smooth water drag and trim measurement as well as rough water drag and motions assessment, comparable to towing tank measurements. After developing, testing, and refining the testing platform, and its systems, a series of arbitrary models (including the classic Series 62 model) of widely varying concepts were designed, produced, and tested using the REI system. This process consisted of an extensive set of smooth water, and rough water tests to characterize the models as well as the testing platform. The final phase of the program was validation, by taking three of the models (including the historically tested Series 62 model) to the NSWCCD David Taylor Model Basin (DTMB) for both smooth and rough water testing so comparisons could be made between the towing tank data (DTMB) and the REI system. All phases of platform development and data quality investigation were successfully completed in 2011. Our report will summarize M Ship’s testing methodology and comparative results.