Effects of varying the transmission coefficient in SNL-SWAN for a wave farm in Peniche

Abstract

The effects of a farm of bottom-fixed oscillating flaps on the wave propagation in Almagreira beach (Portugal) are evaluated. The SNL-SWAN (Sandia National Laboratories, Simulating WAves Nearshore) numerical model is validated from 2010 to 2018 against Nazaré wave buoy data and run for 19 years to characterize the wave resource and identify the most common and energetic sea states. By varying number (10 to 100) and configuration of wave energy converters (WECs) an optimal array is identified. Model sensitivity to two methods of determining the transmission coefficient, OBCASEs 1 and 3, is studied by analyzing changes in significant wave height, period and direction. OBCASE 1 overestimates the effects of the farm on the waves and changes result higher in the lee of the array with an increasing number of devices. As a future work OBCASE 2 and 4 will be compared to OBCASE 1 and 3.