David Taylor Model Basin

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David Taylor Model Basin, circa 1946

The David Taylor Model Basin is one of the largest ship model basins — test facilities for the development of ship design — in the world.

David Watson Taylor designed and supervised construction in 1896 of the Washington Navy Yard's Experimental Model Basin (EMB). The Basin named for him was built in 1939 in Bethesda, Maryland and contains a shallow water basin, a deep water basin, and a high-speed basin.

The Shallow Water Basin comprises three adjoining sections: deep water, shallow water, and a J-shaped turning basin used for steering maneuvers. Its carriage can provide speeds up to 18 knots.

The Deep Water Basin has a pneumatic wavemaker located at one end, and a wave absorbing beach at the other. This capability allows modeling of regular or irregular sea states. Located behind a moveable section of the beach is a fitting out dry dock. Its carriage can provide speeds up to 20 knots.

The High-Speed Basin comprises two adjoining sections: a deep water section and a shallow water section. Wavemaking capability exists in this basin, and there are three large underwater viewing windows at different elevations which are set into the wall about mid-length. The high-speed carriages can provide complex motions for the model at speeds up to 50 knots.

The David Taylor Model Basin is currently operated as a field activity of the Carderock Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center.

The David Taylor Model Basin was an early user of computers, and an active site for computer technology. It was one of three government agencies present at the 1959 meeting where the computer language COBOL was created.