George E. Gadd
Feltham, Great Britain
5th Georg Weinblum Memorial Lecture (1982/83)
Some Effects of Scale in Ship Model Testing | tub.dok
Short Biography
George Edward Gadd graduated in mechanical sciences at Cambridge University in 1948 and obtained a Ph.D in the Aeronautical Engineering Department of Imperial College, London, in 1951.
From 1951 to 1961, he worked in the high-speed section of the Aerodynamics Division of the National Physical Laboratory, mainly on experimental and theoretical studies of interactions between shock waves and boundary layers. This work helped to clarify, for example, the large effects that transition to turbulent flow occurring within the interaction region could have on the extent of flow separation.
In 1961, he transferred to the NPL Ship Division, which later became the National Maritime Institute. Here, while maintaining his interest in boundary layer behaviour, he diversified into other fields, including cavitation and, especially, ship wave-making resistance. For a time also he studied turbulent drag reduction by long polymer additives, a topic that he found fascinating but had to relinquish when it became evident that it would have little practical application to ships. Since then he strayed less far from the path of practical relevance and developed a computation method that, it was hoped, was of direct use to ship designers for assessing the effects of small changes of hull form on wave resistance. He also helped to devise a cure for propeller-excited vibration.
Throughout his career he has divided his time between theory and experiment, which he finds more rewarding than concentrating on one or the other.
From 1972 to 1978, he was secretary of the ITTC Resistance Committee, whose most distinguished honorary member was Georg Weinblum.
[The short biography is taken from the invitation letter for the Georg Weinblum Memorial Lecture held by George E. Gadd. Some slight modifications have been made when deemed necessary.]