Thomas Roc

Research interests

The goal of my PhD Project is create a decision-making tool for use in planning marine renewable energy projects utilizing arrays of tidal current turbines (TCT). Such a tool should assist in determining the optimum device layout in terms of maximizing the extractable energy and minimizing the hydrodynamic environmental impacts of the devices. Obviously, for realistic cases, these issues can't be resolved analytically. Accordingly a numerical approach has to be used.

The numerical tool will be based on an existing hydrodynamic model which shall be modified to enable the user to account for the effects of TCTs. A major feature of the project shall be the inclusion of diverse methods to account for these effects. Additionally, the development of such a tool within a complete regional modelling framework will permit detailed analysis of the regional effects of the TCT arrays as well as provide accurate assessment of the energy extraction potential for realistic environments. Results from a companion project which examines the turbulent and anisotropic behaviours appearing in the water column at device scale will be used to inform the device parameterization.