Application of snl-swan model on the effect of wave farms in the wave propagation

• Autor(a) principal: Fanti, Valeria
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/15083
• topic: Extração de energia das ondas; Wecs; Energia renovável; Fazenda de ondas; SNLSWAN; Modelagem numérica de ondas; Peniche; Waveroller; Bombora; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Naturais::Outras Ciências Naturais

Wave farms are a promising way to harness wave power and produce clean energy, but it is important to develop better modelling tools to understand their impact on nearshore wave climate. The main objective of the present work was to evaluate the effect of wave farms in the wave propagation along a coastline stretch of the Portuguese coast, by using numerical modelling. The exact study area was Almagreira beach in Peniche, north of Lisbon, a selected area for wave farms installation, where a WaveRoller oscillating wave surge converter was tested since 2007. The SNLSWAN (Sandia National Laboratories, Simulating WAves Nearshore) numerical model was used since it is a third-generation spectral wind-wave propagation model that integrates into its algorithms the automatic calculation of the transmission coefficients of obstacles on the wave propagation given the device’s power matrix or relative capture width curve. First, a sensitivity analysis of the model was performed, then the wave transformation and propagation were analyzed in the presence of a different number (from 10 to 100) and positions of wave energy converters (WECs) for six selected most common and energetic incident wave conditions and for 19 years (from 2000 to 2018) of real sea states. A wave farm of 40 WaveRoller type of WECs was then compared with a wave farm of 40 Bombora’s mWave pressure differential WECs. As a result of the simulations, the differences in significant wave height, wave period and wave direction before and after the installation of the wave farms were identified. The percentage decrease in significant wave height resulted to be strictly related to the power matrix and the device with higher power absorption potential showed a greater impact in the lee of the wave farm.