Offshore Wave Power Devices
Introduction
ES-Consult has in several cases participated in projects concerning utilization
of natural power sources. The firm has thus been involved in projects for
plants for production of wave power. The tasks of the firm have concentrated
in particular on development of structures that are able to resist the
very severe wave loads to which they are exposed and are economically acceptable.
Special Assignments
ES-Consult has carried out a quality assurance of the structures for a
power producing plant situated 2 km outside the Hanstholm harbour in Jutland
at 30 m depth of water for the firm Danish Wave Power.
In this connection it appeared to be most appropriate to simulate
the wave movements by harmonic expressions and to evaluate the action on
the swimmer of the plant from simple buoyancy considerations. Hereby the
severe loads on the structure could be predicted by a relatively simple
analysis.
The above mentioned plant was not realized for financial reasons, but
it was decided to build a smaller plant. This plant was, by means of more
complicated computational models developed by ES-Consult, optimized and
dimensioned to resist the worst possible waves outside Hanstholm harbour
- i.e. waves with a height of about 12 m. The computational models were
used to dimension both the structures and the foundations, and at the same
time they formed the basis for the calculation of the power production.
In a continuation of the project the firm has participated in a research
project (OWEC-1) under EU's Joule program. Here ES-Consult has contributed
with computational tools for the estimation of the production of power
and for the analyses of the structures for four different wave power producing
plants.
The computational models are implemented in user-friendly computer programmes,
which can be run on an ordinary PC. Hereby it is possible to optimize a
given plant in a relatively simple way with respect to a given position
and the nature of the waves.
Special Results
The accuracy of the computational models is verified partly by measurements
on the plant outside Hanstholm and partly by comparisons with models developed
by other participants in the Joule project.
Litterature
ES-Consult has participated with contributions at two conferences in wave
power and has contributed to the Joule project with description of the
mathematical models.
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