Physical Oceanography

There are important research questions relating to current/wave interaction in coastal waters - in terms of characterising the hydrodynamic resource, its variability and extremes, and the turbulence generated. These have implications not only for turbine design and placement, but for environmental impacts, on various temporal and spatial scales.

Our hydrodynamics and modelling team have expertise in diverse topics in marine physics, with direct applications to the marine renewable energy industry. We work with comprehensive 2- and 3-dimensional hydrodynamic modelling systems, and have access to supercomputing facilities to run expensive and complex model scenarios. Our SEACAMS2 team also has the facilities and expertise to deploy and analyse data from state-of-the-art oceanographic instruments, including Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) and a directional wavebuoy (Waverider MKIII). Recent and ongoing research projects conducted by this group include:

• Sensitivity of the tidal stream resource to different flow regimes
• Parameterisation of tidal energy extraction in hydrodynamic models
• Consideration of the suitability of different energy extraction devices to varying flow regimes
• The impact of tidal asymmetry on the power asymmetry
• The relationship between bathymetric features and the available tidal energy resource

Please get in contact with us if you would like to know more about our capabilities or to collaborate on R&D projects