Geotechnical Approach to Early-Stage Site Characterisation of Shallow Wave Energy Sites

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Irene Penesis¹  Craig Heatherington²  Remo Cossu²  Alistair Grinham²  Scott Hunter³ 

[1] Blue Economy CRC, Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, Swanson Building, Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia;School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia;Wave Swell Energy Ltd., Hawthorne East, VIC 3123, Australia;

关键词: seabed characterisation;    sub-bottom profiling;    kriging interpolation;    site-suitability model;   

DOI  :  10.3390/jmse9060605

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Marine renewable energy is still in its infancy and poses serious challenges due to the harsh marine conditions encountered for wave or tidal installations and the survivability of devices. Geophysical and hydrodynamic initial site surveys need to be able to provide repeatable, reliable, and economical solutions. An oscillating water column wave energy converter is to be installed on the west coast of King Island, Tasmania. The location is in a high-energy nearshore environment to take advantage of sustained shoaling non-breaking waves of the Southern Ocean and required site-specific information for the deployment. We provide insight into scalable geophysical site surveys capable of capturing large amounts of data within a short time frame. This data was incorporated into a site suitability model, utilising seabed slope, sediment depth, and water depth to provide the terrain analysis needed to match deployment-specific characteristics. In addition, short-term hydrology and geotechnical work found a highly energetic seabed (near seafloor water velocities <1 m/s) with sufficient bearing capacity (6 MPa). In a highly energetic environment, care was taken to collect the relevant data needed for an assessment of critical information to an emerging technology companies primary project. This is in addition to the malleable methodology for a site suitability model that can incorporate various weighted parameters to prioritise the location for shallow wave energy sites in general.

【 授权许可】

Unknown