FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility celebrated its 10th birthday last week and we were delighted to attend the party. FloWave, based at the University of Edinburgh is the world's first circular combined wave and current simulation tank, and over the past decade has helped investigate more than 50 renewable technologies.
Here at Quoceant we have had the opportunity to see the tank in operation many times, testing a variety of scaled wave, tidal and wind devices for clients across the offshore renewable sector. We used the tank ourselves in 2016, to test our concept for a variable hull technology. During which, we captured this nice time-lapse video of our tests, which thanks to FloWave's raisable floor allowed us to test two configurations quickly and easily.
Tank testing is a key part of any marine technology development programme whether its floating wind, floating solar, tide or wave energy. A key benefit of testing in a tank is that there is great repeatability, recreating the same waves over and over again, allowing assessment of how results differ as changes are made on the model. Tank testing also provides key data to validate numerical modelling and design tools. Lastly, apart from actual sea tests, you really can't beat the tank for survivability testing.
Planning a tank test campaign and need expertise in model making, model design, numerical validation or test programme planning - then please get in touch: info@quoceant.com
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