U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
en.wikipedia.org
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
1–10 of 67 posts
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#2It's a shame that there isn't a series of articles on such models --- saw the Chesapeake Bay model (mentioned in a footnote) on a field trip when I was much younger (and it was still in active use for research I believe, yes, as my kids constantly tell me, I'm old).
Simulation used to be essentially impossible, something one dreamed of, or had to pay for time on a Cray or similar supercomputer/cluster.
Apparently, the Chesapeake Bay model was built just as that was becoming feasible:
https://easternshorebrent.com/2017/11/30/doomed-progress-the...
and has since been dismantled and a business park built on the site.
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#3[deleted]
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#4These are the kinds of interesting engineering challenges that were solved with human ingenuity and grit; I wish we were talking more about them to our youth to inspire imagination about what's possible.
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#5The distortion is interesting and something I didn’t realize the model included. I assume that it’s necessary because the effects of surface tension and the viscosity of water (and other effects?) change its behavior at this scale relative to the features of the model?
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#6The fellow who lived next door to me told me of a similar model system used to model Sydney Harbour which he worked on in the 1970s. IIRC it was instrumented with electronics and linked to a VAX or similar early machine.
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#7If you don't know Tom Scott, he has done a great video 4mn vide on the model where you can see it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i70wkxmumAw
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#8The distortion is interesting and something I didn’t realize the model included. I assume that it’s necessary because the effects of surface tension and the viscosity of water (and other effects?) change its behavior at this scale relative to the features of the model?
Yes. Another technique was to use alcohol rather than water since it has lower surface tension, but that was only workable for smaller models (which were usually enclosed).
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#9The distortion is interesting and something I didn’t realize the model included. I assume that it’s necessary because the effects of surface tension and the viscosity of water (and other effects?) change its behavior at this scale relative to the features of the model?
Yes. Another technique was to use alcohol rather than water since it has lower surface tension, but that was only workable for smaller models (which were usually enclosed).
I think a model this size full of alcohol would also be quite hazardous for several reasons.
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#10John McPhee talks about a similar model for the Mississippi River in “The Control of Nature” Well worth a read. Fun stories about Hawaii and Los Angeles too, iirc.