Tidal energy systems and generation – Dymola offers leading solution
The potential size of the global marine renewables market, as indicated in The Carbon Trust MEC report 2006, is between 2000 and 4000 TWh/year. Through utilisation of new technologies, innovative design and manufacturing techniques a large number of companies are exploring different designs to bring to market the next generation of renewable energy technologies.
The aim for all of these companies is to develop a fully self-regulating design that allows for maximum energy capture from the passing waves whilst being rugged enough to survive the extremes of weather that are inevitable for such devices. To achieve these goals the device buoyancy and wave motion have to be carefully managed to maximise the potential of wave energy devices.
From their offshore location there is also the problem of transmitting the energy from the device to the grid for distribution to the consumer. Dymola’s multi-domain modelling capability enables the complete tidal energy system to be modelled including the mechanics, electrical systems, hydraulic systems and control systems. The component orientated modelling approach allows the system models to be quickly created allowing the engineering effort to focus on the configuration of the systems and investigation of the system behaviour.
Powerful Modelica modelling language
Using the powerful features of the Modelica modelling language any non-standard parts can easily be defined and coupled to the existing library components using Dymola. In addition the wave and tidal flows can be defined in a generic way as a function of the position of the part within the flow field enabling the scenarios to be simulated to be quickly adjusted to suit different tidal and weather conditions.
