Specialist Committee on Hydrodynamic Testing of Marine Renewable Energy Devices: final report and recommendations to the 27th ITTC

This report addresses a number of key issues in the physical and numerical testing of marine renewable energy systems, including wave energy devices, current turbines, and offshore wind turbines. The report starts with an overview of the types of devices considered, and introduces some key studies in marine renewable energy research. The development of new ITTC guidelines for testing these devices is placed in the context of guidelines developed or under development by other international bodies as well as via research projects. Sites developed around the world for full-scale testing of Marine Renewable Energy Devices are discussed. Some particular challenges are introduced in the experimental and numerical modelling and testing of these devices, including the simulation of Power-Take-Off systems (PTOs) for physical models of all devices, approaches for numerical modelling of devices, and the correct modelling of wind load on offshore wind turbines. Finally issues related to the uncertainty in performance prediction from test results are discussed.