3D printing of multiple container models and their trajectory tests in calm water

More and more shipping containers are falling into the sea due to bad weather. Containers lost at sea negatively affect the shipping line, the trader and the consumer, and the environment. The question of locating and recovering dropped containers is a challenging engineering problem. Model-testing of small-scaled container models is proposed as an efficient way to investigate their falling trajectories to salvage them. In this study, we first build a standard 20-ft container model in SOLIDWORKS. Then, a three-dimensional (3D) geometric model in the STL (Standard Tessellation Language) format is exported to a Stratasys F170 Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer. In total, six models were made of acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) and printed for the purpose of testing They represent three different loading conditions with different densities and center of gravity (COG). Two samples for each condition were tested. The physical models were dropped into the towing tank of University of New Orleans (UNO). From the experimental tests, it is found that the impact of the initial position after sinking can cause a certain initial rolling velocity, which may have a great impact on the lateral displacement, and subsequently affect the final landing position. This series of model tests not only provide experimental data for the study of the trajectory of box-shape objects but also provide a valuable reference for maritime salvage operations and for the pipeline layout design.