COAST Laboratory - Facilities
The state of the art facilities housed within the COAST Laboratory.

The Ocean Basin is a unique facility that allows waves and currents to be generated at any relative orientation and can be run at different water depths.
This basin can be used to create unidirectional and directional wave fields, regular waves, wave spectra and currents in three dimensions putting it at the forefront of testing for marine renewable energy arrays.
Future developments of the facility include the provision of a wind generation facility.
Wave generation capabilities
The paddles produce regular waves with an approximate maximum height of 0.9m at 0.4 Hz and wave height above 0.2m in a range of 0.166 Hz – 1 Hz.
Wave synthesising software allows long and short-crested spectral sea states to be generated as well as special wave effects. Oblique waves can be comfortably generated up to 40° from normal.
Technical specification
The Ocean Basin is 35m long by 15.5m wide with a moveable floor that allows different operating depths of up to 3m.
Paddles
Currents
Floor
Absorbing beach
One of the key features of the COAST lab is its flexibility. The Coastal Basin allows sediment transport and coastal structures to be studied at scale in a controlled environment.
Wave generation capabilities
The paddles will produce regular waves with a peak wave height of 0.32m. The paddles also function as wave absorbers to mitigate the reflections in the basin. Wave synthesising software allows long and short-crested spectral sea states to be generated, as well as special wave effects.
Technical specification
The Coastal Basin is 15.5m long by 10m wide with a maximum operating depth of 0.5m.
Paddles
Currents
Sediment
Floor and beach
COAST houses two flumes. A 35m flume and a 20m flume with the capability to be tilted. The inclusion of current circulation in the facility allows tidal energy to be studied as well as wave energy technology.
The novel current circulation technology enables a smooth current to be modelled without disturbing the wave signal, this enables the controlled study of wave-current interaction and wave-current-device interaction.
Wave generation capabilities
Waves up to 0.35m high can be generated. Regular waves, focused waves and plunging breakers are all possible. The paddles absorb reflected wave energy.
Technical specification
Paddles
Currents
Sediment
Beach
Other