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Aircraft Carrier Alliance - QinetiQ's Ocean Basin puts new Royal Navy vessel design through its paces
Designed to replace the existing Invincible Class aircraft carriers, two new vessels, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, will be the biggest surface warships ever built for the Royal Navy. The new carriers are being delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), an innovative partnership made up of the Ministry of Defence and a number of key industrial participants.
Before committing their designs to steel, the ACA needed to test the hydrodynamic performance and this vital service was provided by QinetiQ’s huge Ocean Basin, Europe’s largest testing tank. A seven-metre long scale model weighing nearly one tonne was constructed and completed 800 test runs in the tank, providing detailed data on seakeeping, manoeuvring and control in both calm and stormy conditions. The results have driven significant risk out of this £3.9 billion project by proving the ships’ capabilities before they are actually built.
Before committing their designs to steel, the ACA needed to test the hydrodynamic performance and this vital service was provided by QinetiQ’s huge Ocean Basin, Europe’s largest testing tank. A seven-metre long scale model weighing nearly one tonne was constructed and completed 800 test runs in the tank, providing detailed data on seakeeping, manoeuvring and control in both calm and stormy conditions. The results have driven significant risk out of this £3.9 billion project by proving the ships’ capabilities before they are actually built.
"QinetiQ’s hydrodynamic experience and facilities are unique in the UK. It employs very competent people who did a most professional job and their tests resulted in huge risk reduction for this new aircraft carrier project."
Andrew Harris, Platform Architecture Manager, Aircraft Carrier Alliance
Andrew Harris, Platform Architecture Manager, Aircraft Carrier Alliance
Challenge
- Composed of industrial partners and MOD representatives, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) was formed to deliver the two new aircraft carriers that will be the biggest and most powerful surface warships ever built for the Royal Navy.To drive risk out of this huge undertaking and fulfil its MOD contract, the ACA needed to test the hydrodynamic performance of its designs before starting to build the ships.
Solution
- The ACA contracted QinetiQ to run exhaustive hydrodynamic tests in its huge Ocean Basin, the largest testing tank in Europe.
- A seven-metre long scale model of the new carrier was constructed.
- The model completed 800 test runs in the tank, in both calm and stormy conditions, with simulated waves which in some cases exceeded 9m in height.
- More than 30 data channels transmitted the results from model to shore by Wi-Fi up to 50 times a second.
Results
- QinetiQ produced an experimental write-up, containing broad top-level conclusions, accompanied by a huge number of data files.The data included hull motions and accelerations, rudder angles, forces and torques, propeller rpm, thrust and torques and active fin stabilizer positions. The test data enabled the safe take-off and landing conditions for aircraft to be established.
- The test results were instrumental in demonstrating that the new aircraft carriers will do the job for which they have been designed.
- This has de-risked the project by reducing the likelihood of design defects being discovered once the ships are built, thus avoiding huge additional costs.
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