Development of the High Speed Water Tunnel and Summary of Results

Abstract

Contract OEMsr-207 has been a project operated under Section 6.1 of the National Defense Research Committee. It has been under the general supervision of Dr. John T. Tate, Chief of Division 6, and the detailed supervision of Dr. E. H. Colpitts, Chief of Section 6.i. Under this contract, studies have been carried out under Navy Projects NO-i4iJ NO-i76J NO-i49 and NO-i57J and Army Projects OD-99 and AC-70. In addition, studies have been made directly for Contract OEMsr-4i8 operating under Division 3 of the National Defense Research Committee, Columbia University, Division of War Research, operating under Division 6, and for other projects as authorized by Division 6. Nearly all of the projects studied have involved the determination of the hydrodynamic forces acting upon projectiles in flight, either in the air or under water. The initiating problem was the study of the streamlined depth charge for the New London Laboratory. Subsequent projects broadened the field of the Laboratory work to include rockets, bombs, mortars, shells, and torpedoes. The purpose of this report is to present a brief review of the work carried out by the California Institute of Technology under Contract OEMsr-207 for Section 6.1 of the National Defense Research Committee. This summary includes a review of the types of problems assigned to the project, a description of the equipment developed to make the measurements required for the solution of these problems, a brief resume of the work that was completed by the projects, and a short survey of the present state of the field, including the problems that deserve further study.