THESEUS Deliverable ID2.4: Part B - Barriers for wave energy conversion

THESEUS is proposing to adopt wave energy converters (WECs) for beach defense purposes for mitigation of flooding and coastal erosion hazard in the context of increasing storminess and sea level rise. A proposal from the THESEUS project is to place WECs close to the shoreline for contemporary attenuating wave attacks and thereby produce a secondary benefit. Relevant WECs for the present study are those believed to be well suited for coastal protection. In this case the Wave Dragon (WD) is chosen since it has a large energy absorption and reflection due to the presence of reflectors to focus the wave energy. Test-data from the experimental work within WT 2.1 is used for calibration of the numerical wave propagation maodel; MIKE21 BW, to determine the overall wave transmission from a single floating WD in different wave climates. Different mooring stiffness' are evaluated to study the sensitivity of the heave/surge/pitch-movements to the wave transmission from the device. The MIKE21 BW-model is further applied to a relevant THESEUS study site, Santander Bay Spain, to evalate the influence from WDs on a specific bathmetry with the specific wave conditions present at the site. However, it is expected that a part of the conclusions and observations from the specific site can be used in general.

The present study is based on data from the physical tests described in the THESEUS WT2.1 report on physical tests (ID2.5) and is further described in (Nørgaard et al., 2011) and (Nørgaard and Lykke Andersen, 2012)