UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 25, Page 6
March 25, 1993
Expanded Ocean Engineering Laboratory rededicated

     The University of Delaware's newly expanded Ocean Engineering
Laboratory on the Newark campus was officially rededicated in February in a
ceremony marking the observation of National Engineers Week.
     Now one of the most sophisticated coastal engineering experimental
facilities in the world, this U.D. facility allows researchers to bring the
ocean into the lab so that natural processes can be studied.
     Winter storms over the last two years have wreaked havoc with East
Coast shorelines, as well as with state and local budgets charged with
repairing the damage. In Delaware alone, large waves and coastal flooding
have caused millions of dollars of damaged property in the scenic towns of
Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach.
     The beach erosion problems are national in scope, however, and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for providing
storm protection and maintaining navigable waterways and ports, budgets
over $400 million per year to come up with solutions.
     The University of Delaware is in a position to help provide answers to
these large-scale and very expensive problems. Armed with a $2 million
grant from the U.S. Army, the University's Center for Applied Coastal
Research now has enlarged research space for the study of beach erosion.
     Originally built in 1980, the newly expanded laboratory contains wave
basins, tanks, flumes and other equipment designed to bring the ocean into
a laboratory setting so that naturally occurring processes can be
deciphered.
     "The laboratory has been conducting experiments and proposing
solutions to erosion problems for over a decade," according to Robert A.
Dalrymple, professor of civil engineering and director of the center. "With
the recent expansion, it is one of the most sophisticated coastal
engineering experimental facilities in the world."
     In addition to its large-scale wave tanks, the new space provides a
separate laboratory for the study of capillary waves-tiny waves less than
an inch long that are used for radar imaging from space. A new control room
allows researchers to carry out their experiments from a remote location.
With a new data acquisition computer and television cameras, students and
faculty are able to control experiments almost without leaving their
armchairs.
     The laboratory is located behind Penny Hall on Academy Street on the
University's Newark campus.
     For more information on the Ocean Engineering Laboratory, contact
Dalrymple at (302) 831-2440.