WAVE PREDICTIONS AT THE SITE OF A WAVE ENERGY CONVERSION ARRAY

Jeffrey A Oskamp, H Tuba Özkan-Haller

Abstract


The SWAN spectral wave model was applied to a domain along the coast of Oregon State, USA with the purpose of establishing a better understanding of wave conditions at a location which has been proposed for the installation of an array of Wave Energy Converters (WECs). The model uses the directional spectrum measured at a nearby NDBC (National Data Buoy Center) buoy as input and in situ measurements of waves at the proposed WEC location for model validation. It was found that wind -wave generation and bottom friction were not significant over the domain between the NDBC buoy and the WEC site (domain size was 30km in the cross-shore and 230km in the along-shore directions). The predicted wave heights at the WEC location compared favorably to the in situ data wave heights with rms error of ~10 percent. It is suggested that some of this error may arise from the offshore boundary condition where the waves are assumed to be along-shore uniform. Future work is proposed to address this issue. Future work will also include modeling in two other domains, one very small domain to resolve individual WECs and a domain between the WECs and the shore to assess the impact of WECs on the coastline.

Keywords


SWAN; Wave Energy Converters; Wave Modeling

References


Barstow, S. et al. 2003. WORLDWAVES- High quality coastal and offshore wave data within minutes for any global site, Proc. 2003 Int. Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, OMAE 2003, paper 37297.

Beels, C., P. Troch, G De Backer, M. Vantorre, J. De Rouck. 2010. Numerical implementation and sensitivity analysis of a wave energy converter in a time-dependent mild-slope equation model, Ocean Engineering, 57, 471-492.

Beels, C., P. Troch, K. De Visch, J. P. Kofoed, G. De Backer. 2010. Application of the time-dependent mild-slope equations for the simulation of wake effects in the lee of a farm of Wave Dragon wave energy converters, Renewable Energy, 35, 1644-1661. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2009.12.001

Booij, N., R.C. Ris, and L.H. Holthuijsen. 1999. A thirdgeneration wave model for coastal regions: 1. Model description and validation, J. Geophys. Res., 104(C4), 7649-7666. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/98JC02622

Dalrymple, R.A., J.T. Kirby. 1994. REF/DIF 1 Documentation and User's Manual, Center for Applied Coastal Research Report no 94-22, University of Delaware.

Kofoed, J.P., P. Frigaard, E. Friis-Madsen, H.C. Sorensen. 2006. Prototype testing of the wave energy converter wave dragon, Renewable Energy, 31, 181-189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2005.09.005

Lee, C.-H. 1995. WAMIT Theory Manual, Department of Ocean Engineering Report no 95-2, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lenee-Bluhm, P. 2010. The Wave Energy Resource in the US Pacific Northwest, M.Sc., thesis, Oregon State University.

Millar, D.L., H.C.M. Smith, D.E. Reeve. 2007. Modelling analysis of the sensitivity of shoreline change to a wave farm, Ocean Engineering, 34. 884-901 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2005.12.014

Mørk, G., S. Barstow, A. Kabuth, M. T. Pontes. 2010 Assessing the global wave energy potential, Proc. of 29th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, ASME, paper 20473.

Palha, Artur, L. Mendes, C. J. Fortes, A. Brito-Melo, A. Sarmento. 2010. The impact of wave energy farms in the shoreline wave climate: Portuguese pilot zone case study using Pelamis energy wave devices, Renewable Energy, 35, 66-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2009.05.025

Yavuz, H., T. J. Stallard, A. P. McCabe, and G. A. Aggidis. 2006. Time series analysis-based adaptive tuning techniques for a heaving wave energy converter in irregular seas, Proc. IMechE Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 221, 77-90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1243/09576509JPE291


Full Text: PDF

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.