The tank was designed as a classical ship model towing tank and equipped with a wavemaker. It was refurbished in 1989 with a low friction, high-strength carriage. An additional carriage was installed in 1995. The tank is used for ocean engineering experimental studies, as well as traditional resistance and seakeeping studies. An oscillator and hydraulic wave paddle have been developed for use in wake studies behind bluff and streamlined bodies. At right, is a picture of one of the carriages, with RoboTuna attached.

The tank is 108 ft. long, 8.5 ft. wide, and with and average depth of 4.5 ft. The wave generator can generate harmonic or random waves. A data acquisition system allows up to 32 channels of simultaneous data collection. The bridge is the center of operations with six PC's available for data collection and apparatus control. The computer network consists of two CAD terminals which are platforms for SDRC I-DEAS, ProEngineer, AutoCAD and Solidworks. Three MIT Athena Linux machines and one macintosh are also available for data processing and presentation. The towtank also houses two laser systems used in flow visualization experiments. The first is a 6 Watt Argon Ion laser and the second is a dual cavity pulsed ND:Yag laser emmitting 532 nm light at 450 mJ per 9 ns pulse.

The Towing Tank is under the direction of Professor Michael Triantafyllou of the Department of Ocean Engineering.