Turbulence in the marine environment

The Turbulence in Marine Environment (TiME) project aims to improve the understanding of the effect of marine turbulence on tidal arrays in Scottish waters. It is hoped that the results of the analysis will lead to significant cost reductions in the tidal energy industry.

Partrac, Ocean Array Systems, ABPmer and IT Power joined forces to deliver the project, which has used new methods to measure and characterise turbulence.

Marine data acquisition company Partrac measured the turbulence in the challenging environments of the Sound of Islay and the Inner Sound, Pentland Firth.

Sam Athey, a director and co-owner of Partrac said: “This has been an exciting and challenging project to manage. The project team has developed guidance that provides a framework for the tidal industry to measure, classify and analyse turbulence for commercial tidal arrays.”

Software supplier Ocean Array Systems (OAS) was responsible for providing turbulence characterisation and hydrodynamic analyses.

Dr Tom Clark of OAS said: “The project has mapped in detail the effects that marine turbulence has on tidal power installations. Assessment of its impact on engineering design considerations highlighted the importance of properly accounting for turbulence, especially in considering yield and fatigue lifetimes.”

Marine environmental consultants AMPmer and renewable energy consultants IT Power contributed their expertise in resource characterisation and engineering design, device performance and tidal turbine array modelling.

The project was funded by the Scottish government and managed by the Carbon Trust through the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) Array Technology Innovation Programme.

Project manager, Guy Henley, said: “The guidance formulated by project team is comprehensive and provides a solid understanding of the impact of turbulence on tidal arrays, which is a critical aspect of realising commercial scale tidal arrays. We are confident the industry will find it invaluable for their developments.”

By Rebecca Strong