Students are given the opportunity to analyze the ship’s maneuverability on a smaller scale

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – A new ship will dock at Florida Tech’s Mertens Marine Center: a 1/23-scale self-propelled model of the U.S. Navy’s R/V Melville, a research vessel built in 1969.

Ocean engineering students will now analyze the ship’s maneuverability on a smaller scale.

The model was acquired in an agreement between Florida Tech and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division. It arrived on campus in late June and is currently being refurbished at the L3Harris Student Design Center before heading to the anchorage.

Travis Hunsucker, assistant professor of ocean engineering, said he plans to use the model for both research and teaching. He plans to use the model to teach his students experimental ship dynamics and hydromechanics.

In scale, the model is still substantial: about 530 pounds and 12 feet long. The boat is radio-controlled, and Hunsucker’s students will program an autopilot function for the model in the fall. Accelerometers and GPS sensors will measure how it maneuvers through the waves.

According to Hunsucker, collecting data on a large ship at sea would cost thousands of dollars. Using the model ship, they can scale the waves in the Indian River Lagoon to the model to collect similar real-world data. It also fills the need for experimental ship facilities at the university, he said.

“We teach students all kinds of… manual calculations and software tools, but now we can actually go out and collect real data with this ship,” Hunsucker said.

In class, students start simple, first observing how the ship sits statically, Hunsucker said. After learning the proper hand calculations, they learn numerical analysis through software. Then they maneuver the boat through the water and analyze the experimental data they collect.

In addition to the hard skills, Hunsucker also wants to use the model to show his students how to go through the experimental process, starting with careful planning prior to testing.

“There’s a tremendous amount of work that has to be done before you can do a good experiment,” Hunsucker said. “There’s nothing worse than having to repeat an experiment because you didn’t plan it properly.”

Hunsucker will store the model at the Mertens Center and use the Indian River Lagoon and Crane Creek for testing.

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