Este estudo visa à descrição pontual do comportamento hidrodinâmico do estuário do Rio Mearim, analisando os padrões de corrente de maré, do registro de marés e das possíveis relações entre eles. Durante novembro e dezembro de 2012 um ADCP foi fundeado no canal do estuário, onde coletou dados por 31 dias. Os dados foram qualificados e processados para futura análise e inter-relações. Foi observado que a coluna de água estuarina no ponto de medição move-se como uma coluna de água homogênea com fluxo bidirecional no eixo NE-SW. As medições ocorreram no período de baixo índice de pluviosidade. O espectro de energia de velocidade de correntes indicou contribuições parciais dos harmônicos M2, M4, M6 e M8 no padrão de correntes encontrados. Defasagens no tempo entre os picos de máxima velocidade de corrente durante enchente e vazante mostraram a dominância do processo de maré vazante sobre a enchente no estuário. A análise integrada apresentada permitiu uma melhor compreensão no entendimento do comportamento das correntes forçadas pela maré, as chamadas correntes de maré, no estuário do Rio Mearim. / This study aim to describe the punctual hydrodynamic behavior of Mearim River estuary, analyzing the pattern of the tidal current, the tidal data and possible relationship between them. During 2012 november and december an ADCP was deployed in the estuary channel, where it collected data for 31 days. The data were qualified and processed for further analysis and inter-comparisons. It was observed the estuarine water column in the point of deployment moved as a homogeneous water column with bidirectional flux in axis NE-SW. The deployment was made in a period of low pluviosity index. The energy spectrum of current velocity indicated partial contribution of harmonics M2, M4, M6 e M8 in the current pattern found. Delays between the maximum velocity during flood and ebb conditions, showed the dominance of the edd process over the flood in the estuary. An analysis integrated presented on this paper allowed a better understanding of the behavior of the current forced by tides, called the tidal current in the Mearim River estuary.

The tidal current energy resource is challenging to assess with accuracy and precision. An accepted standard methodology is lacking, which in turn perpetuates uncertainty and hinders the industry’s development. Technical Committee 114 of the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC-TC-114) is working to develop a standard for emerging tidal energy conversion systems. The draft standard prescribes methods for determining, objectively and reliably, the scale and character of tidal current energy resources at a site. The IEC-TC-114 draft standard for tidal energy resource assessment and characterisation has not yet been tested in a real world case study. Hence, it is not yet known whether the proposed methods will yield the desired outcome. This research has adopted the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) project in Minas Passage, Nova Scotia, for pilot application of the draft standard on tidal current resource assessment. The Bay of Fundy, located on the Atlantic coast of North America between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, is known for having the highest tidal range in the world and has long been recognised as an ideal stage for tidal energy development. The thesis is presented in three main parts. Firstly, the latest peer-reviewed scientific literature is summarised and the standard is reviewed in view of lessons learned. The aim of this exercise is to establish a scientific basis for and to develop suggestions towards improving and extending future revisions of the standard. Secondly, a comprehensive assessment of the tidal current energy resource at the FORCE project site is conducted in a manner that is consistent with IEC-TC-114 protocol based on available measurements from static current profiler surveys and a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the upper Bay of Fundy developed for this study. Thirdly, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the main sources of error and uncertainty affecting resource assessment, a topic which has yet to be addressed in the literature.

Yes / In nearshore regions, bidirectional tidal flow is the main hydrodynamic factor, which induces local scour around submarine pipelines. So far, most studies on scour around submarine pipelines only consider the action of unidirectional, steady currents and little attention has been paid to the situation of bidirectional tidal currents. To deeply understand scour characteristics and produce a more accurate prediction method in bidirectional tidal currents for engineering application, a series of laboratory scale experiments were conducted in a bidirectional current flume. The experiments were carried out at a length scale of 1:20 and the tidal currents were scaled with field measurements from Cezhen pipeline in Hangzhou Bay, China. The experimental results showed that under bidirectional tidal currents, the scour depth increased significantly during the first half of the tidal cycle and it only increased slightly when the flow of the tidal velocity was near maximum flood or ebb in the following tidal cycle. Compared with scour under a unidirectional steady current, the scour profile under a bidirectional tidal current was more symmetrical, and the scour depth in a bidirectional tidal current was on average 80% of that under a unidirectional, steady current based on maximum peak velocity. Based on previous research and the present experimental data, a more accurate fitted equation to predict the tidally induced live-bed scour depth around submarine pipelines was proposed and has been verified using field data from the Cezhen pipeline.

Together with the world economic growth is the increasing of energy generation demand. However, the upgrade of world power production capability could affect the environment negatively. Even the clean and renewable sources, such as hydroelectricity and wind powers have socio-economic and environmental disadvantages. For example, the required flooded area for a hydro power plant construction could devastate entire forests, and the installation of a wind farm power plant could affect migratory rotes of birds and generate high levels of noise. Hence, for the balancing of advantages and disadvantages of each power generation source, it is necessary to diversify, which requires investments in new power sources. In this context, the energy generation in the ocean is highlighted. The first point concerning the ocean energy is that there is no need of population removal from the installation area, such as the onshore based methods and the second point is that most of the population is concentrated in coastal areas. Therefore the production occurs near to the demand, decreasing the costs with energy distribution. The two main methodologies for harassing energy from oceans are based on gravity waves and in tides. And since the tidal cycles are governed mainly by the gravitational interaction between oceans, Moon and Sun, they are easily predictable, which increases the reliability of such systems. These works explores methodologies to analyse the power generation from a single axial tidal current turbine through a Steady State RANS methodology. Are discussed the effects of flow directionality, inlet velocity profile and turbulence levels and the results are compared with an experimental scheme. It is proposed an alternative methodology for free surface modelling in the CFD analysis. The usual methodology, VOF, it is based on a homogeneous, biphasic approach which requires an additional mesh refinement and is computationally expensive. This new methodology introduces an elastic wall approach in the free surface region in which the stiffness is calculated to provide the same restoring effect as gravity. In general, the results for open domain matched with the experimental results, validating the numerical model and the confined domain has shown a higher power and thrust coefficients if compared with the open domain, which is in accordance with the actuator disk theory approach. The elastic free surface presented convergence problems related to high Froude numbers and therefore to high deformations. However, a simulation with 10% of the original inlet velocity was performed, achieving reasonable results for both power and thrust coefficients evaluation. / O crescimento econômico mundial e o aumento na demanda pela geração de energia andam juntos. No entanto, uma maior capacidade de produção de energia poderia afetar negativamente o meio ambiente. Mesmo as fontes limpas e renováveis, como a hidrelétrica e a eólica acarretam em impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais. Por exemplo, a construção de uma usina hidrelétrica demanda uma imensa área alagada que pode devastar florestas inteiras e a instalação de uma usina eólica pode afetar a migração de certas espécies de pássaros e produzir altos níveis de barulho. Portanto, para equilibrar as vantagens e desvantagens devidas a cada meio de produção de energia, é necessária a diversificação, que demanda de investimentos em novas fontes. Neste contexto, a geração de energia nos oceanos é destacada. O primeiro ponto a respeito desta fonte é de que não há a necessidade de remoção da população na área de instalação, tal como os métodos de geração dentro do continente. O segundo principal ponto é a respeito da distribuição de energia. A maior parte da população mundial vive em regiões costeiras, diminuindo, portanto, a distância entre a produção e demanda, reduzindo assim, seus custos. As duas principais metodologias para se explorar a energia proveniente dos oceanos são: Energia de Ondas e Energia de Marés. E considerando que os ciclos de mare são governados principalmente pela interação gravitacional entre os oceanos, lua e sol, eles são facilmente previsíveis, o que aumenta a confiabilidade dos sistemas de geração de energia baseados em marés. Este trabalho explora as metodologias para analisar a geração de energia a partir de uma única turbina axial de corrente de maré através de uma metodologia baseada nas equações de Navier-Stokes com a média de Reynolds, analisadas em regime permanente. São discutidos efeitos da direção do escoamento, perfil de velocidades na entrada e nos níveis de turbulência. Os resultados são comparados com experimentos. É proposta uma metodologia alternativa para a modelagem da superfície livre com CFD uma vez que a metodologia atual é baseada em um escoamento bifásico que demanda de um refinamento adicional da malha e é computacionalmente caro. A nova metodologia usa uma parede elástica na região da superfície livre com a rigidez ajustada para se obter o mesmo efeito de restauração que a gravidade. De maneira geral, os resultados para o domínio aberto se aproximaram dos resultados experimentais, validando o modelo numérico e além disso, o modelo considerando confinamento da turbine mostrou maiores valores para os coeficientes de potência e empuxo, estando portanto, de acordo com a teoria do disco atuador. O modelo com a superfície livre elástica apresentou problemas de convergência, relacionados com números de Froude elevados, uma vez que isto se relaciona com maiores deformações na região da superfície livre. Uma simulação com 10% da velocidade original foi realizada, obtendo-se resultados coerentes para ambos coeficientes de potência e empuxo.

Interest in exploring renewable energy resources has increased globally, especially with recent worldwide intentions to maintain the global climate. Looking at the oceans as a vast sustainable clean energy resource to satisfy present high humankind energy demands has been strongly recommended. Several types of renewable energy resources exist in the oceans: waves, tides, thermal and salinity variations, currents, and offshore winds. Exploiting tidal currents is considered one of the most effective approaches to the generation of electricity. Tidal turbines are deployed beneath the sea surface to transfer the kinetic energy in tidal currents to mechanical energy suitable for ongoing conversion to electricity and subsequent transmission. However, choosing a suitable site to deploy these turbines is not a trivial process. Various constraints must be satisfied subject to basic criteria dependent upon local factors, technology limitation and economic consideration. In addition, an important issue to consider is taking care to harness energy from tidal currents with minimum possible impact on the surrounding environment. The present study justifies the nomination of the Strait of Messina as an exceptional tidal current energy resource within the Mediterranean Sea basin. The maximum tidal current velocity at spring peak tide through the Strait may exceed 3 m/s. This mainly results from the tidal phase-difference (180°) between the northern (Tyrrhenian Sea) and southern (Ionian Sea) tips of the Strait, associated with a difference of 0.27 m in tidal wave amplitudes. In addition, the complex coastline configuration of the Strait plays an important role in enhancing tidal current velocities. Therefore, the Strait of Messina fulfils the basic criterion (2 m/s tidal current velocity) to be considered as a valid tidal current energy resource. This massive tidal current energy resource is assessed in the present study. A detailed full desk-based Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study is performed using the interactive matrix approach in order to investigate the anticipated environmental impacts on the marine ecosystem of the Strait of Messina resulting from the harnessing of energy from its tidal currents. Through the EIA study the different environmental components, both biotic and abiotic, which may be affected by the energy extraction process, are explained. In addition, the proposed key project activities are listed; the likelihood of occurrence and the magnitude of impact interaction with the environmental components are evaluated. The final judgment matrix guides to make a right decision on the proposed project. From the resulted matrix, the major impacts do not exceed 10% of the total anticipated effects. The positive point is that all the expected impacts, including the majors, can be controlled and minimised to the lowest possible limits by applying a good monitoring programme. The University of Edinburgh “Tidal Flow Development (TFD)” numerical model is used to mimic the tidal environment of the Strait of Messina in different cases. The model successfully simulates the tidal flow regime within the Strait under some exceptional conditions. Modifications to the main numerical code and coefficients were necessary in the present research to adjust the model according to each case study. In the three different cases of simulation, using these exceptional coefficients, the model simulates the main tidal characteristics of the tidal flow within the Strait. According to the results of the numerical simulation process, tidal currents are more intensive close to the eastern coast of the Strait of Messina near to Punta Pezzo. This area is far from any ferry route between Italy and Sicily. The best location to deploy tidal turbines for the energy extraction process is therefore recommended to be within these surroundings. Finally, a physical (laboratory) model is used to simulate the flow regime within the Strait of Messina. The Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique was applied in the flow-table tank at the University of Edinburgh. The physical model simulates the flow behaviour within the Strait of Messina to a satisfactory degree. The cyclonic and anti-cyclonic motions observed at the southern extremity of the Strait are also very well simulated. The results of the present study assure confidence in the use of tidal currents within the Strait of Messina as a renewable energy resource. The safety of the environment must be ensured by following environmental guidelines, respecting the energy extraction limits and by applying an effective monitoring programme. The later is strongly recommended to be an adaptive one in which higher environmental authorities are able to watch, revise and control the environmental team within the project. These authorities are also able to postpone the project in case of any severe environmental case. The simulation processes emphasize the effect of morphometry and topography in enhancing tidal currents in the Strait of Messina. Moreover, numerical simulation assures that the complex morphometry and bathymetry, in addition to the open boundaries of the Strait of Messina, are challenging issues for modellers in order to mimic the real tidal current resource in the case of the Strait of Messina. The study also strongly recommends applying a more effective numerical model than TFD to assess the tidal hydrodynamical environment before and after any proposed energy extraction process. This will certainly, with the EIA of the marine ecosystem, help to make a right decision about the proposed project in order to achieve the goal of using clean and clear renewable energy resources while maintaining both natural and hydrodynamical environments to the most possible safest degree.

A tidal current turbine is a device functioning in a manner similar to wind turbine for harnessing energy from tidal currents, a group of which is called a farm. The existing approaches used to predict power from tidal current turbine farms oversimplify the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, which significantly affects the results. The major focus of this dissertation is to study the relationship between turbine distribution (the relative position of the turbines) and the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, and its impact on the power from a farm. A new formulation of the discrete vortex method (DVM-UBC) is proposed to describe the behavior of turbines and unsteady flow mathematically, and a numerical model is developed to predict the performance, the unsteady wake and acoustic emission of a stand-alone turbine using DVM-UBC. Good agreement is obtained between the results obtained with DVM-UBC and published numerical and experimental results. Then, another numerical model is developed to predict the performance, wake and acoustic emission of a two-turbine system using DVM-UBC. The results show that the power of a two-turbine system with optimal relative position is about 25% more than two times that of a stand-alone turbine under the same conditions. The torque such a system may fluctuate 50% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. The acoustic emission of such a system may be 35% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. As an extension, a numerical procedure is developed to estimate the efficiency of an N-turbine system by using a linear theory together with the two-turbine system model. By integrating above hydrodynamic models for predicting power and a newly-developed Operation and Maintenance (O&M) model for predicting the cost, a system model is framed to estimate the energy cost using a scenario-based cost-effectiveness analysis. This model can estimate the energy cost more accurately than the previous models because it breaks down turbine’s components and O&M strategies in much greater detail when studying the hydrodynamics and reliability of the turbine. This dissertation provides a design tool for farm planners, and shed light on other disciplines such as environmental sciences and oceanography.

A tidal current turbine is a device functioning in a manner similar to wind turbine for harnessing energy from tidal currents, a group of which is called a farm. The existing approaches used to predict power from tidal current turbine farms oversimplify the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, which significantly affects the results. The major focus of this dissertation is to study the relationship between turbine distribution (the relative position of the turbines) and the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, and its impact on the power from a farm. A new formulation of the discrete vortex method (DVM-UBC) is proposed to describe the behavior of turbines and unsteady flow mathematically, and a numerical model is developed to predict the performance, the unsteady wake and acoustic emission of a stand-alone turbine using DVM-UBC. Good agreement is obtained between the results obtained with DVM-UBC and published numerical and experimental results. Then, another numerical model is developed to predict the performance, wake and acoustic emission of a two-turbine system using DVM-UBC. The results show that the power of a two-turbine system with optimal relative position is about 25% more than two times that of a stand-alone turbine under the same conditions. The torque such a system may fluctuate 50% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. The acoustic emission of such a system may be 35% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. As an extension, a numerical procedure is developed to estimate the efficiency of an N-turbine system by using a linear theory together with the two-turbine system model. By integrating above hydrodynamic models for predicting power and a newly-developed Operation and Maintenance (O&M) model for predicting the cost, a system model is framed to estimate the energy cost using a scenario-based cost-effectiveness analysis. This model can estimate the energy cost more accurately than the previous models because it breaks down turbine’s components and O&M strategies in much greater detail when studying the hydrodynamics and reliability of the turbine. This dissertation provides a design tool for farm planners, and shed light on other disciplines such as environmental sciences and oceanography.

Transition towards a low carbon economy raises concerns of loss of security of supply with high penetrations of renewable generation displacing traditional fossil fuel based generation. While wind and wave resources are increasingly forecastable, they are stochastic in nature. The tidal current resource, although variable has the advantage of being deterministic and truly predictable. With the first Crown Estate leasing round complete for wave and tidal current energy, plans are in place to install 1000 MW of tidal capacity in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters. The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to examine the role tidal current energy can realistically play in the future electricity mix. To achieve this objective it was first necessary to develop new methodologies to capture the temporal and spatial variability of tidal current dynamics over long timescales and identify metrics relevant in a tidal energy context. These methodologies were developed for project scale resource characterisation, and provided a basis for development of a national scale dataset. The creation of project and national scale tidal datasets capture spatial and temporal variability at a level beyond previous insight, as demonstrated in case studies of three important early stage tidal current energy development sites. The provision of a robust national scale dataset enabled the development of realistic scenarios for the growth of the tidal current energy sector in UK waters. Assessing the various scenarios proposed indicates that first-generation technology solutions have the potential to generate up to 31 TWh/yr (over 8% of 2009 UK electricity demand). However, only 14 TWh/yr can be sensibly generated after incorporating realistic economic and environmental limitations proposed in this study. The preceding development of methodologies, datasets and scenarios enabled statistical analysis of the matching characteristics of future tidal energy generation potential with the present UK electricity demand and trends of electricity usage. This analysis demonstrated that the UK tidal current energy resource is much more in phase than has previously been understood, highlighting the flaws in previous studies suggesting that a combined portfolio of sites around the UK can deliver firm power. As there is negligible firm production, base-load contribution is insignificant. However, the time-series generated from this analysis identifies the role tidal current energy can play in meeting future energy demand and offer significant benefit for the operation of the electricity system as part of an integrated portfolio.

Together with the world economic growth is the increasing of energy generation demand. However, the upgrade of world power production capability could affect the environment negatively. Even the clean and renewable sources, such as hydroelectricity and wind powers have socio-economic and environmental disadvantages. For example, the required flooded area for a hydro power plant construction could devastate entire forests, and the installation of a wind farm power plant could affect migratory rotes of birds and generate high levels of noise. Hence, for the balancing of advantages and disadvantages of each power generation source, it is necessary to diversify, which requires investments in new power sources. In this context, the energy generation in the ocean is highlighted. The first point concerning the ocean energy is that there is no need of population removal from the installation area, such as the onshore based methods and the second point is that most of the population is concentrated in coastal areas. Therefore the production occurs near to the demand, decreasing the costs with energy distribution. The two main methodologies for harassing energy from oceans are based on gravity waves and in tides. And since the tidal cycles are governed mainly by the gravitational interaction between oceans, Moon and Sun, they are easily predictable, which increases the reliability of such systems. These works explores methodologies to analyse the power generation from a single axial tidal current turbine through a Steady State RANS methodology. Are discussed the effects of flow directionality, inlet velocity profile and turbulence levels and the results are compared with an experimental scheme. It is proposed an alternative methodology for free surface modelling in the CFD analysis. The usual methodology, VOF, it is based on a homogeneous, biphasic approach which requires an additional mesh refinement and is computationally expensive. This new methodology introduces an elastic wall approach in the free surface region in which the stiffness is calculated to provide the same restoring effect as gravity. In general, the results for open domain matched with the experimental results, validating the numerical model and the confined domain has shown a higher power and thrust coefficients if compared with the open domain, which is in accordance with the actuator disk theory approach. The elastic free surface presented convergence problems related to high Froude numbers and therefore to high deformations. However, a simulation with 10% of the original inlet velocity was performed, achieving reasonable results for both power and thrust coefficients evaluation. / O crescimento econômico mundial e o aumento na demanda pela geração de energia andam juntos. No entanto, uma maior capacidade de produção de energia poderia afetar negativamente o meio ambiente. Mesmo as fontes limpas e renováveis, como a hidrelétrica e a eólica acarretam em impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais. Por exemplo, a construção de uma usina hidrelétrica demanda uma imensa área alagada que pode devastar florestas inteiras e a instalação de uma usina eólica pode afetar a migração de certas espécies de pássaros e produzir altos níveis de barulho. Portanto, para equilibrar as vantagens e desvantagens devidas a cada meio de produção de energia, é necessária a diversificação, que demanda de investimentos em novas fontes. Neste contexto, a geração de energia nos oceanos é destacada. O primeiro ponto a respeito desta fonte é de que não há a necessidade de remoção da população na área de instalação, tal como os métodos de geração dentro do continente. O segundo principal ponto é a respeito da distribuição de energia. A maior parte da população mundial vive em regiões costeiras, diminuindo, portanto, a distância entre a produção e demanda, reduzindo assim, seus custos. As duas principais metodologias para se explorar a energia proveniente dos oceanos são: Energia de Ondas e Energia de Marés. E considerando que os ciclos de mare são governados principalmente pela interação gravitacional entre os oceanos, lua e sol, eles são facilmente previsíveis, o que aumenta a confiabilidade dos sistemas de geração de energia baseados em marés. Este trabalho explora as metodologias para analisar a geração de energia a partir de uma única turbina axial de corrente de maré através de uma metodologia baseada nas equações de Navier-Stokes com a média de Reynolds, analisadas em regime permanente. São discutidos efeitos da direção do escoamento, perfil de velocidades na entrada e nos níveis de turbulência. Os resultados são comparados com experimentos. É proposta uma metodologia alternativa para a modelagem da superfície livre com CFD uma vez que a metodologia atual é baseada em um escoamento bifásico que demanda de um refinamento adicional da malha e é computacionalmente caro. A nova metodologia usa uma parede elástica na região da superfície livre com a rigidez ajustada para se obter o mesmo efeito de restauração que a gravidade. De maneira geral, os resultados para o domínio aberto se aproximaram dos resultados experimentais, validando o modelo numérico e além disso, o modelo considerando confinamento da turbine mostrou maiores valores para os coeficientes de potência e empuxo, estando portanto, de acordo com a teoria do disco atuador. O modelo com a superfície livre elástica apresentou problemas de convergência, relacionados com números de Froude elevados, uma vez que isto se relaciona com maiores deformações na região da superfície livre. Uma simulação com 10% da velocidade original foi realizada, obtendo-se resultados coerentes para ambos coeficientes de potência e empuxo.

A tidal current turbine is a device functioning in a manner similar to wind turbine for harnessing energy from tidal currents, a group of which is called a farm. The existing approaches used to predict power from tidal current turbine farms oversimplify the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, which significantly affects the results. The major focus of this dissertation is to study the relationship between turbine distribution (the relative position of the turbines) and the hydrodynamic interactions between turbines, and its impact on the power from a farm. A new formulation of the discrete vortex method (DVM-UBC) is proposed to describe the behavior of turbines and unsteady flow mathematically, and a numerical model is developed to predict the performance, the unsteady wake and acoustic emission of a stand-alone turbine using DVM-UBC. Good agreement is obtained between the results obtained with DVM-UBC and published numerical and experimental results. Then, another numerical model is developed to predict the performance, wake and acoustic emission of a two-turbine system using DVM-UBC. The results show that the power of a two-turbine system with optimal relative position is about 25% more than two times that of a stand-alone turbine under the same conditions. The torque such a system may fluctuate 50% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. The acoustic emission of such a system may be 35% less than that of a stand-alone turbine. As an extension, a numerical procedure is developed to estimate the efficiency of an N-turbine system by using a linear theory together with the two-turbine system model. By integrating above hydrodynamic models for predicting power and a newly-developed Operation and Maintenance (O&M) model for predicting the cost, a system model is framed to estimate the energy cost using a scenario-based cost-effectiveness analysis. This model can estimate the energy cost more accurately than the previous models because it breaks down turbine’s components and O&M strategies in much greater detail when studying the hydrodynamics and reliability of the turbine. This dissertation provides a design tool for farm planners, and shed light on other disciplines such as environmental sciences and oceanography. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mechanical Engineering, Department of / Graduate