The energy of the ocean waves, experts point out, has many advantages: it is the most powerful, clean and constant renewable energy. However, the design of devices for its capture is still in an early stage of development, and it is necessary to increase the efficiency and reduce the costs of its technology to facilitate greater industrial implementation. Researchers from the Ourense campus are leading a project with state funding that seeks, through computer simulation, to optimize the design of wave energy devices and achieve more efficient and reliable devices. As a result of this work, an open and free computational tool will be created that will allow the sector to improve these structures but also others anchored far from the coast, such as oil platforms or wind turbines.
The project, entitled “Numerical design of floating devices for wave energy exploitation: efficiency and survival (Welcome)”, is funded with 95,590 euros in the 2016 call of the Challenges Program of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. The research team is led by Alejandro Jacobo Cabrera, Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Faculty of Sciences on the Ourense campus, and formed by professor Ramón Gómez Gesteira from the Environmental Physics Laboratory of the CS-ECIMAT Singular Center and by postdoctoral researchers José Manuel Domínguez, visiting at the University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, and Corrado Altomare, from the University of Ghent, in Belgium. The study, which will be carried out throughout 2017, 2018 and 2019, has expressions of interest from the companies Oceantec, Wavepower, Abengoa Seapower and Vicinay Marine, and from the research centers Tecnalia, Centec and the universities of Ghent and Manchester. “These entities have shown interest in the results of the project and will therefore actively participate in its orientation in order to achieve results that are applicable to them and therefore also to other entities in the industrial sector,” explains Cabrera Crespo.
Betting on the potential of marine energy
In the current context of climate change and the growing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, Alejandro Cabrera contextualizes, the objectives of the climate and energy policies of the surrounding countries “have been oriented towards achieving environmental sustainability, energy security and independence and economic competitiveness”. In this framework, points out the researcher from the University of Vigo, wave energy “has the capacity to become the lowest-cost renewable energy source due to its high energy density” and “the potential to cover a large part of the energy needs of our society”. According to the researcher, the marine energy sector in Spain is in the initial phase of technological development. “The current evolution is based on innovation projects, many of which are carried out by small and medium-sized companies in cooperation with universities. Spain, together with countries such as the United Kingdom, Norway or Portugal, is at the forefront of the technological development of wave energy, with the characteristics of the coast, mainly the northern coast of Spain, being ideal for the generation of this type of energy”, comments Alejandro Cabrera.
New developments with DualSPHysics
In this context, the project funded by the Retos call aims to develop a simulation tool for the study of wave energy harvesting devices. Specifically, explain those responsible for the work, floating OWC (Oscillating Water Column) devices moored to the seabed will be studied. “We will create a numerical tool that will allow optimizations to be made in the design of the device by analyzing its efficiency based on different wave conditions, chamber dimensions and PTO (Power Take-Off) systems,” indicate the researchers. Secondly, during the project, the survival of the floating device in the most extreme sea conditions will be studied, “looking for the optimal arrangement of the moorings to increase the life of the device in very energetic sea states.”
To create the simulation tool, the researchers will work with DualSPHysics. This is software created by the Ephyslab group, Environmental Physics Laboratory, of the University of Vigo, to which the project researchers belong, in collaboration with other institutions in Portugal, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Italy. This program, which has exceeded 25,000 downloads, has become an international benchmark in fluid simulation since its birth in 2011 due to its high precision, and its high performance with reasonable calculation times of hours. Following the philosophy of this group, the tool developed within the framework of the Welcome project will be open and free, including “a friendly interface that makes it easier for end users, who can be researchers, companies in the marine energy field and administrations”.
Applicable to other structures anchored at sea
“This project seeks to provide new tools to promote ongoing research on wave energy. We believe that an open and free computational model that is validated with ad hoc experiments based on floating OWCs is a very attractive product to facilitate progress in this field beyond the project’s action”, emphasizes Alejandro Cabrera. At a scientific level, he adds, other institutions can make use of the code created to continue advancing research in this field, developing new numerical models and designing more efficient devices. “At an industrial level, private companies and administrations can also incorporate the DualSPHysics model as a consulting tool to reduce costs and times when designing and testing new devices”, points out the project leader. Finally, the project researchers emphasize that many of the functionalities that will be developed are also valid for other structures anchored far from the coast, such as wind turbines, oil platforms or crude and gas extraction and processing vessels.
