Technisch ontwerpen en practica zijn bèta specifieke handelingen die moeten bijdragen aan de kennisontwikkeling van leerlingen. Uit verschillende onderzoeken blijkt de inzet van Technisch ontwerpen en practica weinig begrip over concepten aan te leggen bij leerlingen. Het leereffect van practica en technisch ontwerpen kan wellicht vergroot worden door inzet van het digitale schoolbord. Gebruikmakend van zowel kwalitatief als kwantitatief onderzoek wordt er geprobeerd een groter leereffect te bewerkstelligen en een betere link te leggen tussen het uitgevoerde werk (het experiment) en de te leren concepten.

Why do river floods in different regions change differently in response to a changing environment? Changes in climate and land-use cause changes in river flows. However, while flows increase in some regions, they decrease in other regions. In addition, some regions respond in a more pronounced way to change than others. We will analyse and explain the above differences, describe the regionally varying underlying processes and use the resulting new understanding to provide more reliable predictions of floods and droughts across Europe.

Ship propulsion at high speed or under adverse conditions causes cavitation, a hydrodynamic phenomenon that leads to an important increase in emitted noise thereby affecting the ship’s signature and marine life in a negative way. Therefore, both ecological, economical and strategic reasons call for the reduction of cavitation. This project 1) acquires fundamental knowledge on the phenomenon, 2) models and predicts the moment when cavitation starts in various conditions, and 3) applies this knowledge at the training center of the Royal Netherlands Navy to develop the preconditions for real life navigation that flexibly allows for minimizing cavitation.

The objective of this study is to develop a numerical model to simulate the wave-induced loads on a ship that is moored in a harbour or coastal region. The starting point of this study is an existing non-hydrostatic wave-flow model (SWASH). To study the wave-induced loads on a moored ship, we extended SWASH to include a restrained (i.e., nonmoving) ship. Preliminary results indicated that the extended model is capable of simulating the wave transformation in the vicinity of a restrained ship. Next, we wish to validate if this numerical model is capable of accurately predicting the wave-induced forces and moments on a restrained ship. For this purpose, we wish to compare model results with measurements from a laboratory experiment. The laboratory experiment was conducted in a wave basin of approximately 40m x 40m. In prototype scale, this is equivalent to a domain of 4km x 4km. At these scales, full three-dimensional simulations on a single processor range from hours to days, which clearly shows the need for parallel computing.