Bionic Adaptive Stretchable Materials for WEC (BASM-WEC)

This project aims to develop an advanced numerical modelling tool to investigate the fluid-flexible structure-interaction mechanism of Wave Energy Converters (WECs) and Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs). The focus is on studying the impact of elasticity on the aero- and hydro-elastic responses of these structures using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) approach. The current state-of-the-art modelling tools for flexible structures in Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) have limitations in accurately predicting complex behaviours and non-linear strain-stress relationships.
The methodology involves expanding existing computational tools to incorporate hyper-elastic material models and using a multi-physics simulation approach with the help of open-source codes. The project team requires powerful supercomputer resources to handle large-scale simulations of 3D flexible WEC and FOWT cases. The successful implementation of this project will have significant implications for the ORE industry and contribute to the well-being of the UK people.

This project is used to support the EPSRC granted project "Bionic Adaptive Stretchable Materials for WEC (BASM-WEC)"