SMARTY - Supergen MARrine TechnologY challenge

任何暴露在破浪中的结构，无论是简单的防波堤还是复杂而昂贵的海洋能源机器，都将在倾覆的波峰猛烈撞击时暴露在高海浪冲击载荷下。对于寻求这种条件的冲浪者来说，海浪破裂时水面运动的剧烈是众所周知的。海洋可再生能源设备将受到大自然所能产生的最猛烈的风暴的打击，但它们需要在天气良好、海浪相对较小的情况下产生大量电力。这种二分法可能会导致代价高昂的故障，比如位于苏格兰北部海岸外的鱼鹰，这是一种2兆瓦的波浪发电原型设备，在一场风暴中受损并沉没。如果海洋可再生能源要在满足联合王国的能源需求方面发挥重要作用，所有能源提取装置必须在许多年和许多大风暴中不受损害。因此，需要准确的设计方法来估计在这种风暴中出现的峰值水动力负荷。这个项目探索了确保可再生能源设备在极端条件下生存所需的科学和工程，并试图确定设备在不太严重的条件下运行的上限。在生存能力方面取得重大进展的关键是了解陡峭和猛烈的海浪在重大洋流上的行为。波浪发电机和海流涡轮机都可能位于相对较浅的水域，潮流相对较快，显然对于潮汐涡轮机来说，这是一个优点！如果水流很快，水很浅，那么靠近海床的水流就会受到相当大的阻力，而流向海面的阻力就会更小。因此，这股潮流很可能是高度剪切和非常动荡的。再加上猛烈地掀翻陡峭海浪的大量水流，很明显，在当地，水流将以非常快的速度流动。这个项目的第一部分是描述海浪的统计数据，以及这种统计数据在几十年到几十年的时间里是如何变化的。接下来，波与切变的电流结合在一起。然后，海洋可再生能源设备的模型将暴露在如此猛烈的海浪和海流事件以及测量到的力中。最后，我们的目标是开发和测试力计算机为基础的计算方法，以评估负荷。这一研究项目的总体成果将为消除阻碍、限制和减缓海洋可再生能源的大规模实施作出重要贡献。

Any structure exposed to breaking waves, be it a simple breakwater or a complex and expensive marine energy machine, will be exposed to high wave impact loads as overturning wave crests slam into it. The violence of the motion of the water surface as waves break are well-known to surfers who seek out such conditions. Marine renewable energy devices will be hit by the most violent storms that nature can produce, yet they are required to produce significant power when the weather is benign and the waves relatively small. This dichotomy can result in expensive failures such as that of the Osprey, a 2MW wave power prototype device located off the north coast of Scotland, which was damaged and sank in a storm. If marine renewable energy is to play a significant role in meeting the energy requirements of the the United Kingdom, all energy extraction devices must survive for many years and many large storms without damage. Hence accurate design methods are required to estimate the peak hydrodynamic loads occurring in such storms.This project explores the science and engineering required to ensure that renewable energy devices survive extreme conditions, and seeks to identify the upper limit of device operations in less severe conditions. Key to making a significant advance in survivability is understanding how steep and violent waves behave on significant currents. Both wave power machines and marine current turbines are likely to be located in relatively shallow water with relatively fast tidal currents, obviously for tidal turbines this is a virtue! If the current is fast and the water shallow, there will be considerable resistance to the flow close to the sea-bed and less further up towards the surface. Thus, the current is likely to be highly sheared and very turbulent. Add on top of this bulk flow violently overturning steep waves and it is clear that the water will be moving around very fast in local regions. The first part of this project is to characterize the statistics of waves and how this varies over time for decades to decades. Next the waves are combined with sheared currents. Then models of marine renewable energy devices will be exposed to such violent combined wave and current events and the forces measured. Finally we aim to develop and test force computer based computational methods for assessing loads. The overall output from this research project will make an important contribution to removing blocks limiting and slowing down the large-scale implementation of marine renewable energy.