Predicting the motion of tidal support systems is critical for device development and deployment. Considerable research and industry study is conducted investigating the performance of the tidal turbines themselves, but there has been less investigation into the support structures. SME tested the first full-scale PLAT-O taut-moored platform at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in 2016, and the platform is ready for full deployment in early 2017. Development of the second-generation device PLAT-O#2 has been conducted since 2015 and uses the same concept as PLAT-On 1 but will mount four individual turbines instead of two as seen on the first-generation device.
The PLAT-O 2 taut-moored platform at 1/17 scale model was tested in tank tests at the FloWave Tank in Edinburgh in April 2016. The model, tested in axial flow up to full-scale speeds of 4.5m/s. The platform was tested under both normal operating conditions and in line-loss conditions. In the project considered here, the scaled results were compared to simulations created in ProteusDS software of the full-scale platform. This was done to determine the accuracy of modelling the platform behaviour and mooring line tensions in ProteusDS.
