Queen’s Marine Laboratory - Portaferry is a research facility that serves both the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Natural and Built Environment

It has a 18 x 16 m wave basin, with an operating depth up to 0.65 m. The wave tank is equipped with state of the art instrumentation, including a 24-paddles Edinburgh Design Ltd Wave Maker with active wave absorption. The electric paddles can produce regular and random waves with heights up to 0.55 m, wave angle variations from 0° to 45° and wave periods from 1 s to 3.5 s.

Video capture, motion tracking, load measurement along the 6-degrees-of-freedom and conductivity measurements using twin-wire wave gauges are additional instrumentations also available.

The basin has an adjustable tank floor for tests at various depths.

 The most recent tests carried out at Portaferry Wave Tank investigated on:

• Interaction of wave energy converter arrays
• Effect of marine energy array on the coastline
• Wave breakers, wave barriers, piers, harbours, piles, revetment slopes
• Effects on navigation and berthing
• Coastal flooding estimation

For enquiries please contact: 

Portaferry Coastal Wave Basin Manager
Dr Pal Schmitt 
Email: p.schmitt@qub.ac.uk