New Generation Modelling Suite for the Survivability of Wave Energy Convertors in Marine Environments (WavE-Suite)

Lead Research Organisation: City, University of London
Department Name: Sch of Engineering and Mathematical Sci

Abstract

Although there is a long history of research of wave energy convertors (WECs), there are still many challenges that make it difficult to develop effective, reliable and economically viable WECs. One of the challenges is the lack of robust modelling tools to assess survivability of WECs under extreme marine environments that cause extreme loads and large responses. Survivability of WECs needs to be concerned not only in the design stage but also when operational to maximise the amount of harnessed energy and minimise the risk of damage. To assess and analyse the survivability of WECs, one must identify survival conditions, quantify loadings and responses of WECs and characterise the pressure and velocity field of WECs under survival conditions. Identification of survival conditions for WECs requires not only the consideration of severe storms but also of loads and responses of WECs in shorter steep seas, which is different from that for other offshore structures that may just need to consider severe storms giving the largest wave heights. High precision quantification of loadings and responses of WECs must consider wave breaking and viscosity, which will provide dominate factors for conceptual design and to determine if the device needs to be shut down. Characterisation of the pressure and velocity fields of WECs needs to resolve two-phase flow with vortex structures to sufficient detail, which will provide information for structural and components design. In addition, as the waves in the survival conditions are highly nonlinear, they must be simulated for a long propagating duration in a large domain to allow them to sufficiently evolve. Therefore, the numerical modelling tools for analysing WEC survivability should have the capability of dealing with breaking waves and two-phase flow and accurately estimating the effect of viscosity in turbulent states. In the meantime, the tools must be fast enough so that engineers can simulate the cases within practical time-scales for design.

Many numerical models with various levels of accuracy and efficiency exist, but none of them can adequately deal with the extreme conditions found in practice. Some models are phase-averaged, being computationally efficient but not sufficiently accurate. Some models are phased-resolved, based either on the potential theory or the viscous theory. The most advanced potential models are fully nonlinear and much faster than viscous models, but could not deal with wave breaking and turbulence which always occurs for WECs. The viscous models can theoretically deal with the physical phenomena but are generally very computationally expensive, perhaps also suffering from unwanted numerical dissipation. This project will develop a novel numerical modelling suite by combining different models and by proposing new numerical approaches and machine learning techniques, which will be more accurate and require less computational effort. The modelling suite will be able to automatically go up to fully nonlinear simulations and down to linear simulations depending on the level of nonlinearity of waves and their interaction with the WECs. The new modelling suite will be validated by data measured from WEC models in the laboratory and real devices at sea, and will be applied to assess the parameters relevant to the survivability and reliability of WECs.

During the project, an advisory board will be set up to give the suggestions on specific research topics, and regular project meetings/workshops will be held to attract the interests of WECs stakeholders and disseminate the research outcomes. Our project partners will be invited to be a member of the advisory board and to attend or contribute to the meetings/workshops. Databases for different types of WECs will be created during this project, which will be accessible by general public.

Publications

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Buizza C (2022) Data Learning: Integrating Data Assimilation and Machine Learning in Journal of Computational Science

 
Description Initial version of software has been formed and validated by using the experimental data. The agreement between numerical results and the tests in laboratory is very good.
Exploitation Route The software developed in this project may be used by wave energy developers.
Sectors Energy

 
Description 2nd project workshop held online 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This workshop was organised online. World-wide researchers working on offshore renewable energy attended it. We also invited Prof. Qing Xiao, who lead another project of wave energy programme, report the progress of the project her is leading.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Attending Supergen ORE Hub Autumn Assembly 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This is Supergen ORE Hub Autumn Assembly. Qingwei Ma was invited to give a presentation on the project progress and to participate grouping discussions about the challenges of offshore renewable energy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Attending Supergen ORE Hub Autumn Assembly 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This is Supergen ORE Hub Autumn Assembly. Qingwei Ma was invited to give a presentation on the project progress and to participate grouping discussions about the challenges of offshore renewable energy. Co-I, Prof. J Zang, Prof. S Yan, Prof.Venki Venugopal , Dr. Z Xie and RAs working this projects also attend the meeting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC2023) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The 15th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC2023), 3rd - 7th September 2023 in Bilbao, Spain. Prof. Venki Venugopal make a presentation. Qingwei Ma attended the conference and have discussions and meetings with industrial project partners (CorPower, Mocean and BiMEP). One RA also attended this conference. Prof. Venki Venugopal and RA visited the site of OWC facility of BiMEP. Qingwei Ma visited the Marine Energy Platform of BiMEP in Biscay.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE 2023) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This is 33rd International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE 2023) attended by academician and industry professional from all over the world. Qingwei Ma made three presentation on behalf of the team.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description International forum on offshore renewable energy 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The forum discussed the state of art of ORE and prospects of ORE. Qingwei Ma was invited to make keynote presentation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Project Workshop held online 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This workshop was organised online. World-wide researchers working on offshore renewable energy attended it. Presentations were made on each of Workpackages of this project. In addition, one industry in the wave energy made a presentation as well.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022