Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel
| Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel | |
|---|---|
Interactive map of the Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel area | |
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Type | Educational, R&D |
| Location | University Park, Pennsylvania, North Atherton Street, University Park, PA, 16801 |
| Coordinates | 40°47′35″N 77°52′06″W / 40.793054°N 77.86822°W |
| Construction started | 1948 |
| Completed | October 7, 1949 |
| Opening | March, 1950 |
| Renovated | 1992 |
| Client | ARL, U.S. Navy |
| Owner | Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory |
| Website | |
| ARL Homepage | |
The Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel is one of the U.S. Navy's principal experimental hydrodynamic research facilities and is operated by the Penn State Applied Research Laboratory. The facility was completed and entered operation in 1949. The facility is named after Lieutenant W. Garfield Thomas Jr., a Penn State journalism graduate who was killed in World War II. For a long time, the Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel was the largest circulating water tunnel in the world. It has been declared a historic mechanical engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Today, in addition to many of its Navy projects, the facility tunnel-based research has expanded into pumps for the Space Shuttle, advanced propulsors for ships, heating and cooling systems, artificial heart valves, vacuum cleaner fans, and other pump and propulsor related products.