| 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 a methodology for the SpecWEC numerical modelling tool and the application of the methodology to a site case analysis. The methodology is presented as a nine step process, and each step is described in detail. The case analysis describes the application of the methodology to the EMEC wave test site off the coast of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. It includes a sensitivity analysis of the power capture of an array of 100 heaving buoys. The sensitivity of the array power capture to array layout, array spacing, array location, marine current, and variations in sea state parameters were tested. Representative sea states were used for all the sensitivity studies except for the variations in sea state parameters, which were tested using idealized sea states.
Although the results are only technically valid for the particular WEC and site modelled, this site case analysis demonstrates that the SpecWEC tool can be used effectively by applying the methodology to assess the impact that different design choices may have on the WEC array power capture and thus support the design of a wave farm in general. |
