Abstract
Wave energy converters (WECs) inherently extract energy from incident waves. For wave energy to become a significant power provider in the future, large farms of WECs will be required. This scale of energy extraction will increase the potential for changes in the local wave field and coastal environment. Assessment of these effects is necessary to inform decisions on the layout of wave farms for optimum power output and minimum environmental impact, as well as on potential site selection. An experimental campaign to map, at high resolution, the wave field variation around arrays of 5 oscillating water column WECs and a methodology for extracting scattered and radiated waves is presented. The results highlight the importance of accounting for the full extent of the WEC behavior when assessing impacts on the wave field. The effect of radiated waves on the wave field is not immediately apparent when considering changes to the entire wave spectrum, nor when observing changes in wave climate due to scattered and radiated waves superimposed together. The results show that radiated waves may account for up to 50% of the effects on wave climate in the near field in particular operating conditions.
Highlights
Wave power is a promising contributor to a global sustainable energy portfolio; a global resource which is estimated to be comparable to consumption [1]
The wave field variation around arrays of five Oscillating Water Column Wave energy converters (WECs) has been assessed in multiple configurations experimentally in the Queen’s University Belfast 3D coastal wave basin
Mapping of the wave climate in a range of frequencies was made possible through high-resolution measurement of surface elevation in the vicinity of the array using a specially designed polychromatic wave packet
Summary
Wave power is a promising contributor to a global sustainable energy portfolio; a global resource which is estimated to be comparable to consumption [1]. This paper describes an experimental investigation into wave field variations around arrays of Oscillating Water Column WECs and a methodology for extracting radiated and scattered waves from the resulting wave field maps for different incident wave conditions. This will be influential in understanding the factors effecting the impact of WECs on the wave field and informing an accurate hydrodynamic representation of WECs in wave propagation models for further environmental impact investigations
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