Re-Creating Waves in Large Currents for Tidal Energy Applications

Samuel Draycott, Duncan Sutherland, Jeffrey Steynor, Brian Sellar and Vengatesan Venugopal
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Samuel Draycott: School of Engineering, Institute for Energy Systems, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK
Duncan Sutherland: School of Engineering, Institute for Energy Systems, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK
Jeffrey Steynor: School of Engineering, Institute for Energy Systems, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK
Brian Sellar: School of Engineering, Institute for Energy Systems, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK
Vengatesan Venugopal: School of Engineering, Institute for Energy Systems, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, UK

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-24

Abstract: Unsteady wave loading on tidal turbines impacts significantly the design, and expected life-time, of turbine blades and other key components. Model-scale testing of tidal turbines in the wave-current environment can provide vital understanding by emulating real-world load cases; however, to reduce uncertainty, it is important to isolate laboratory-specific artefacts from real-world behaviour. In this paper, a variety of realistic combined current-wave scenarios is re-created at the FloWave basin, where the main objective is to understand the characteristics of testing in a combined wave-current environment and assess whether wave effects on the flow field can be predicted. Here, we show that a combination of linear wave-current theory and frequency-domain reflection analysis can be used to effectively predict wave-induced particle velocities and identify velocity components that are experimental artefacts. Load-specific mechanisms present in real-world conditions can therefore be isolated, and equivalent full-scale load cases can be estimated with greater confidence. At higher flow speeds, a divergence from the theory presented is observed due to turbulence-induced non-stationarity. The methodology and results presented increase learning about the wave-current testing environment and provide analysis tools able to improve test outputs and conclusions from scale model testing.

Keywords: tidal energy; wave-current interaction; tank testing; wave orbitals; wave reflection analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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