The project, a collaboration between the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney and FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility at the University of Edinburgh, began in 2012 with the aim of substantially improving the accuracy of replicating open ocean conditions at tank scale, according to FloWave's release.
FloWave is a 25 metre circular test tank which is the only facility in the world with the capability to generate complex waves and fast tidal currents from any point of the compass.
After three years of work by Sam Draycott – a dedicated research engineer working at FloWave – and the support of the highly experienced team at EMEC, FloWave can now accurately replicate individual project site locations within the tank to a level of sophistication and complexity not possible anywhere else in the world.
Making full use of both the 10-year plus data-set from EMEC’s Billia Croo offshore test site and the multi-directional wave and current capability of the FloWave test tank, the new technique has already been trialled and tested by engineering consultants Quoceant, a company with significant experience in testing in real wave climates, and at Billia Croo in particular.
At that time the FloWave facility was nearing completion of its build phase, and both facility directors saw the opportunity to use the unique capability of the test tank to help developers prepare for real-sea deployments by testing in scale conditions as close to realistic as technically possible.