Edinburgh University has officially opened a new £10.5 million ocean research facility. The FloWave facility comprises a 25m circular pool, 2m deep, and is able to recreate waves and currents from coastlines around the UK, Europe and beyond.
The FloWave tank can generate currents up to 1.6 m/s, regular waves up to one 700mm high, and 'freak' waves considerably larger than that. Scaling up, this allows the facility it to simulate waves up to 28m high and currents of up to 14 knots.
The facility is expected to be used to test wave and tidal energy converters, floating offshore wind platforms, and specialist vessels to install and maintain offshore projects.
"FloWave is unique in that it can recreate real sea conditions combining waves and tides for almost any location or sea state in the world," says FloWave chief executive officer Stuart Brown.
"Its circular design means waves have no reflections and both waves and currents can come from multiple directions, to accurately mimic the real ocean environment. This means researchers and industrial partners can use the facility to develop and refine prototype devices before building and testing them full-scale for deployment in near-identical conditions at sea."
The facility is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the University of Edinburgh and Scottish Enterprise.
Photo: FloWave facility, which was opened by UK energy and climate change minister Amber Rudd on 5 August
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