Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

The wave energy resource of the US Pacific Northwest

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/xs55mf154

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  • The substantial wave energy resource of the US Pacific Northwest (i.e. off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and N. California) is assessed and characterized. Archived spectral records from ten wave measurement buoys, operated and maintained by the National Data Buoy Center and the Coastal Data Information Program, form the basis of this investigation. Because an ocean wave energy converter must reliably convert, and survive, the energetic resource, a comprehensive characterization of the expected range of sea states is essential. Six quantities were calculated to characterize each hourly sea state: omnidirectional wave power, significant wave height, energy period, spectral width, direction of maximum directionally resolved wave power and directionality coefficient. The temporal variability of these characteristic quantities is depicted at different scales, from hourly to interannual. Cumulative distributions of both occurrence and contribution to total energy are presented, over each of the six quantities characterizing the resource. It is clear that the sea states occurring most often are not necessarily those that contribute most to the total incident wave energy. The sea states with the greatest contribution to energy have significant wave heights between 2 and 5 m and energy periods between 8 and 12 s. Sea states with the greatest significant wave heights (e.g. > 7 m) contribute little to the annual energy, but are critical to consideration of reliability and survivability. To characterize the likelihood of successfully performing a given operation (e.g. deployment, maintenance), seasonal expectations of weather windows are depicted for two locations. Finally, a limited number of spectra are proposed to represent the conditions at a location 9 km offshore, in 40 m of water.
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