Wave machine

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A wave machine is used to create artificial water waves . There are wave machines for generating running waves (use in wave pools , for aqua aerobics , swimming training or for physical therapy ) and wave machines for generating regular, stationary waves ( surfing ). In addition, wave machines are used in towing tanks and swell basins by shipbuilding research institutes to generate artificial swell .

Generation of running waves

Drive of the Undosa wave machine. The drive gears for the crankshafts (two crank arms per shaft box) of the two shaft boxes differ in one tooth. This means that the drive only has to push both shaft boxes downwards at the same time every three minutes. If both wave boxes are moved in opposite directions, the waves are highest on the outside.

On the deep side of a water basin, water is rhythmically displaced by displacement bodies, oscillating wings, pistons or air pressure. The water is then pushed into the bathing area through a gap in the lower part of the pool. This is where the waves emerge, which run out to the flatter part of the basin and, through the overturning of waves, generate the surf noises known from seashores .

history

At the eastern tip of Berlin's Lohmühleninsel, a swimming pool was built on the Spree in 1849 , in which a steam engine generated artificial waves. Eugen Sachse, the inventor of underwater lights for divers, took over the facility in 1877. Since then it has had the name: Sachsesches steam wave pool in front of the Silesian Gate. The bath closed in 1920.

In 1905 the Undosa wave pool was built on Lake Starnberg . It was the first bath in Germany that generated waves (hence “real waves”) using a wave machine. In 1921 the wave pool was closed and the wave machine dismantled.

The International Hygiene Exhibition Dresden in 1911 showed an Undosa wave machine from the Dresden company Wayss & Freytag and its inventor Hermann Recknagel, heating engineer (Berlin). This machine was installed on June 28, 1912 in the Bilzbad in Kötzschenbroda Oberort , reconstructed in 1997/98, can be viewed as a technical monument and is still used regularly today.

  • Drive of the Undosa wave machine

  • Sign for the Undosa wave machine

  • Original Undosa wave box made of wood

  • Metal shaft box after the reconstruction in 1998

Geographical location : 51 ° 7 ′ 22.3 ″  N , 13 ° 38 ′ 52 ″  E

Generation of regular, stationary waves

The American company Waveloch builds Flowrider wave machines in which a thin film of water is sprayed at high speed over a wave body covered with foam-like cast, creating a regular, stationary wave. In German-speaking countries there are flow rider facilities in the Alpamare in Bad Tölz (closed in 2015) and in the tidal land on Borkum .

Web links

Running waves:

Standing waves:

swell

  1. ↑ Dirk Lindemann: Bath technology for operation and training . 6th edition 2006, PDF , pages 35–37, 1.3.5 wave pool
  2. ^ Dania Ammann: Standing waves and surf tourism , diploma thesis at the International School for Tourism AG, Zurich, October 2005 ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )