The extreme conditions modeling project (ECM) will be releasing two open-source numerical tools for use in modeling extreme conditions of wave energy converters (WECs).
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratotries and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed the WEC Design Response Toolbox, a collection of algorithms that address components of the design response analysis process as part of the ECM project.
The available methods fall into five categories: environmental characterization, short-term extreme response, long-term extreme response, fatigue, and design wave composition.
The toolbox can be used by researchers and developers to apply the methods necessary for design response analysis of WECs, according to Sandia.
The ECM team is also working on a tool for obtaining distributed pressure time-histories of marine structures.
Both tools will be presented at the Marine Energy Technology Symposium 2016 (METS 2016) that takes place from April 25 to 27, 2016. The tools will eventually be released as free, open-source, collaborative codes through GitHub.