Hydrodynamics and Marine Operations
Our research is supported by an active marine operations team, with experience deploying a range of field testing, hydrodynamic analysis and deployment expertise, providing support to international and national companies and local contractors.
Research areas include marine renewable energy station keeping and fully dynamic mooring simulation requirements, development of offshore test sites and field measurement techniques, best practices for deployment procedures, and power cable dynamics.
Offshore Reliability and Component Testing
The reliability of marine renewable energy installations is one of the main engineering challenges in the sector. The research in this area focuses on methods to assess, model, demonstrate and improve the reliability of components and systems for marine renewable energy applications. For this purpose the University of Exeter has developed a world-leading Dynamic Marine Component test facility (DMaC), following a service simulation test approach. Successfully tested components include novel conventional mooring components, dynamic marine power cables, bend restrictors, power conversion mechanisms for national and international companies and specific research projects.
Resource Assessment
Resource assessment research at the University of Exeter encompasses both physical measurement of the wave and current regime via offshore instrumentation such as wave buoys and ADCPs, and numerical modelling, using state of the art software to predict sea states across the South West. The research group has extensive experience in both these areas, and played a lead role in the development of a protocol for marine energy resource assessment as part of the FP7 EquiMar project.
Facilities and Capabilities
The group has access to conventional laboratory facilities, including materials testing and workshops but also has significant specialist resources applicable to the renewable energy sector. Most of these are unique facilities relating to ocean energy research, power systems and reliability and field studies. These have relevance both for fundamental research and industrial projects. These facilities include:
Falmouth Bay nursery test site (FaBTest)
South West Mooring Test Facility (SWMTF)
Dynamic Marine Component Test Rig (DMaC)
Experimental Current Flume
Research Vessel, with survey and ROV capabilities
Measurement Instruments and Modelling:
Deep water ADCPs
Floating wave buoys
High Performance Computing cluster