Internship - Hannover Grosser Wellenkanal

Things have been pretty busy the last few weeks or so with work. We finally got involved with the project we are taking part in, and we’ve put in a lot of time already. As an overview, I am working for TU Braunschweig’s Leicht Weiβ Institut für Wasserbau. So far, I have done most work at the Grosser Wellenkanal in Hannover, which is the world’s biggest wave tank, at 300 meters long. In the tank, we are building a dike, on which we will eventually run wave breaking tests on. When I first started, the sand core of the dike was already laid down. So, I helped lay down the next layer of clay. Once the clay was all compacted and smoothed out, we began to add on the top grass layer. For the grass, we used large soil and grass mats, each of which weighed over 100 pounds. We had to cut each mat to size, and bring them by crane to the dike at the center of the wave tank. There, we put the mats in place. Finally, we set up lamps over the grass. Now, we are giving the grass 3 ½ weeks to grow and set in. Then, we will fill the wave tank with water, and run tests and experiments on the dike.

All of the information on the EroGRASS project can be found at:

http://www.kyst.dk/sw12634.asp