A collaboration between independent environmental hydraulics consultancy and research organisation, HR Wallingford, and the University of Salento (UniSalento), will see the creation of a hydraulic laboratory on the university’s Ecotekne Campus at Lecce in the South of Italy.
A framework agreement, outlining the terms of the new partnership, was signed on Monday 4 June 2018 at the university.
The collaboration will create an advanced hydraulic laboratory in which the partners will carry out joint research and consultancy in environmental hydraulics, marine and coastal structures, and offshore engineering.
HR Wallingford has supplied and fitted seven banks of its multi-element wave generators to equip a 30 m wide wave basin that will be used for the physical modelling of coastal structures, plus a wave maker for a 45 m long by 2 m deep flume.
The company will also provide training in the use of open-source software (such as TELEMAC) for the numerical simulation of wave-structure interaction, flows and dispersion of pollutants in the sea, and for measuring instruments used in the laboratory and in the field.
Under the terms of the partnership, HR Wallingford will have access to the ‘Corpo Z’ facility to carry out some of its own physical modelling research, and will contribute to the maintenance costs of the facility.