Abstract |
The Performance Assessment of Wave and Tidal Array Systems (PerAWaT) project, launched in October 2009 with £8m of ETI investment. The project delivered validated, commercial software tools capable of significantly reducing the levels of uncertainty associated with predicting the energy yield of major wave and tidal stream energy arrays. It also produced information that will help reduce commercial risk of future large scale wave and tidal array developments.
This document describes the validation and verification of the SpecWEC numerical modeling tool with a linear hydrodynamic model (WAMIT), a non-linear hydrodynamic model (OXPOT), and wave tank experimental data from WG2 WP2. The document begins with a description of the method that is used to represent wave energy devices within the model. For this particular set of cases, a heaving buoy point absorber representation was developed. The specifics of the test cases are described. Twelve sea states with varying significant wave height, energy period, and directional characteristics were used for each configuration. A comparison of the SpecWEC tool to the wave tank experimental data from the Portaferry wave tank experiments is also presented. Finally, applications and limitations of the SpecWEC model are discussed. |