WAVE PREDICTIONS AT THE SITE OF A WAVE ENERGY CONVERSION ARRAY

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.