Junior-level students in Grand Valley's Seymour and Esther Padnos School
of Engineering competed in the annual Wooden Shoe Regatta Thursday.
Each summer, students design and build small sailboats as a lesson in
fluid mechanics. Students are be awarded trophies for style and speed
for their 1/12 scale model sailboats, each carved from a 2-inch by
4-inch by 10-inch block of basswood.
The exercise is aimed at giving students an understanding of how fluid
mechanics can be applied to sailboats. The students use a special
12-foot towing tank and a wind tunnel to predict the performance of the
hull and sails. Using the results, the students are able to predict how
a full-scale vessel would perform. All of that testing, and an
explanation of special design features, are put into a report, which is graded.
Sailing away
Aug 8, 2002
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