A new simulation and optimisation platform for marine technology

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Ocean Energy)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Not Cross-cutting
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)

Dr MD Piggott
Earth Science and Engineering
Imperial College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 March 2015

28 August 2018

42 months

£434,711

Energy

London

NC : Infrastructure

Dr MD Piggott, Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London

Dr J Gorman, Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Dr DA Ham, Mathematics, Imperial College London
Professor P Kelly, Computing, Imperial College London

Project Contact, Renewable Energy Systems
Project Contact, H R Wallingford Ltd
Project Contact, The Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)
Project Contact, Argonne National Laboratory, USA
Project Contact, MeyGen Ltd
Project Contact, Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd
Project Contact, Alstom Grid Ltd
Project Contact, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway

The coastal zone plays a crucial part in addressing two of the most pressing issues facing humanity: energy supply and water resources. Marine renewable energy and desalination are both characterised by the deployment of relatively small-scale technology (for example, tidal turbines, or desalination plant outfalls) in large-scale ocean flows. Understanding the multi-scale interactions between sub-metre scale installations and ocean currents over tens of kilometres is crucial for assessing environmental impacts, and for optimisation to minimise project costs or maximise profits. The vast range of scales and physical processes involved, and the need to optimise complex coupled systems, represent highly daunting software development and computational challenges. Geographically, the UK is uniquely positioned to become a world leader in marine renewable energy, but adequate software will be a key factor in determining the success of this new industry.To address this need, this project will re-engineer a unique CFD to marine scale modelling package to provide performance-portability, future-proofing and substantially increased capabilities. To motivate this we will target two applications: renewable energy generation via tidal turbine arrays and dense water discharge from desalination plants. Both are characterised by a common wide range of spatial and temporal scales, the need for design optimisation and accurate impact assessments, and a current lack of the required software.This project will build upon several world-leading open source software projects from the assembled multi-disciplinary research team. This team already has a long and successful track record of working together on the development of high quality open source software which is able to exploit large-scale high performance computing and has been used widely in academia and industry. In addition, the project has assembled a wide range of suitable project partners to aid in the delivery of the project as well as to promote longer term impact. These include complementary centres of excellence in cutting-edge software development, industry leaders in the targeted application areas, marine consultancies, and those contributing to environmental regulation.

18/06/15