A tidal and wave testing facility that is currently under construction is expected to make testing of tidal prototypes easier. According to Onlinetes.com, the FloWave TT test center is being built at the University of Edinburgh’s King’s Buildings campus.
The facility will contain the first water tank in the world capable of simulating waves of up to 28 meters high and currents of up to 12 knots.
FloWave chief executive Stuart Brown stated: “It’s quite a unique design of tank, in that it is circular and quite large, and we have got a combination of wave makers and a current device in there.”
According to him, the test area measuring 17m in diameter by 2m deep will allow the tank to simulate the rough conditions as well as help researchers study the impact of waves, currents and tides at the same time.
Tidal and wave developers will be able to test 1/20 scale models, although the facility will be constructed to handle machines as large as 1/10 scale, or entire arrays at 1/40.
Brown said: “There may be some very unusual far end-of-the-range environments that we are not able to do. But what we are hoping is that we will be able to mimic almost everywhere that people will need.”
Although the price for the tank has not been set, it is expected that there will be different pricing rates for academic organizations, device developers and ‘commercial users’, essentially oil and gas companies.
However, this development does not mean that FloWave will stay at the forefront of tidal and wave testing for long.
“It would be naive of us to expect someone else not to have built one of these say in five years’ time,“ added Brown .
The center will cost £9.5m to build and apart from being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the University of Edinburgh, they are looking for additional investors to decrease the bank debt needed.
FloWave is expected to open by the end of July 2013.
[mappress]
Offshore WIND staff, May 31, 2012; Image: FloWave TT