Energia das Correntes Marítimas e das Marés

Objectives

At the completion of the course, the student will become familiar with: • currents, tides and their characteristics; • tidal barrages, tidal streams and lagoons; • resource assessment; • hydrodynamic theory of marine current turbines (BEM, lifting line and panel methods); • advanced hydrodynamic modelling and control of MC&TE systems; • experimental testing and monitoring of current energy systems; • the state of the art of electro-mechanical power take-off equipment used in current energy converters; • mooring and anchoring systems; • design principles and configuration of farms; • experimental methodologies for turbine testing.

Syllabus

RESOURCE AND TECHNOLOGY Tidal barrages, lagoons and tidal streams. Locations with most exploitation potential. Estimation of tidal resource and the available energy. Types of marine current and tidal turbines. HYDRODYNAMIC MODELS Blade element momentum, lifting line theory, integral boundary element method. Hydrofoil data and analysis. Cavitation and mechanical strength. Panel methods vs. RANS based methods. TURBINE DESIGN Principle of operation and components of water turbines, electrical generators, and energy storage. Energy production and power regulation. Multiple turbine interaction. OFFSHORE STRUCTURES Classification of offshore structures. Loads, mooring and anchoring systems. Description of anchoring and foundations systems. Taut and slack- mooring systems. Mooring configurations in arrays. Design principles of tidal turbine farms. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS Scaling laws. Wave-current flumes and wave towing tanks.

Prerequisites

Fluid mechanics, basic programming skills.

Cross Competence Component

The assignement and project are a group works to be presented and discussed in an oral examination. Both require critical and innovative thinking, contribute to teamwork capabilities and improve scientific and technical communication skills.

Laboratorial Component

The students should run a code based on the lifting line method for the design and analysis of a horizontal axis marine current turbine at different tip- speed-ratios. The code has additional packages for cavitation and mechanical strength analysis of turbine blades. This software is demonstrated and used during the computational laboratories.

Programming And Computing Component

For the project, the students should write a computer code to estimate the energy production of a given marine current power plant. The students have the freedom to select the programming language to implement the algorithm. To complete the assignment and the final project, students must use abstraction, automation and algorithmic reasoning programming skills, estimated in 0.2 ECTS.

Ethical Principles

All members of a group are responsible for the group’s work In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used. In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.