Weon-Mu Jeong

Wave Analysis and Spectrum Estimation for the Optimal Design of the Wave Energy Converter in the Hupo Coastal Sea

There exist various types of the WEC (Wave Energy Converter), and among them, the point absorber is the most popularly investigated type. However, it is difficult to find examples of systematically measured data analysis for the design of the point absorber type of power buoy in the world. The study investigates the wave load acting on the point absorber type resonance power buoy wave energy extraction system proposed by Kweon et al. (2010). This study analyzes the time series spectra with respect to the three-year wave data (2002.05.01~2005.03.29) measured using the pressure type wave gage at the seaside of north breakwater of Hupo harbor located in the east coast of the Korean peninsula. From the analysis results, it could be deduced that monthly wave period and wave height variations were apparent and that monthly wave powers were unevenly distributed annually. The average wave steepness of the usual wave was 0.01, lower than that of the wind wave range of 0.02-0.04. The mode of the average wave period has the value of 5.31 sec, while mode of the wave height of the applicable period has the value of 0.29 m. The occurrence probability of the peak period is a bi-modal type, with a mode value between 4.47 sec and 6.78 sec. The design wave period can be selected from the above four values of 0.01, 5.31, 4.47, 6.78. About 95% of measured wave heights are below 1 m. Through this study, it was found that a resonance power buoy system is necessary in coastal areas with low wave energy and that the optimal design for overcoming the uneven monthly distribution of wave power is a major task in the development of a WEF (Wave Energy Farm). Finding it impossible to express the average spectrum of the usual wave in terms of the standard spectrum equation, this study proposes a new spectrum equation with three parameters, with which basic data for the prediction of the power production using wave power buoy and the fatigue analysis of the system can be given.

Relationship Analysis on the Monitoring Period and Parameter Estimation Error of the Coastal Wave Climate Data

In this study, the quantitative analysis and pattern analysis of the error bounds with respect to recording period were carried out using the wave climate data from coastal areas. Arbitrary recording periods were randomly sampled from one month to six years using the bootstrap method. Based on the analysis, for recording periods less than one year, it was found that the error bounds decreased rapidly as the recording period increased. Meanwhile, the error bounds were found to decrease more slowly for recording periods longer than one year. Assuming the absolute estimate error to be around 10% () for an one meter significant wave height condition, the minimum recording period for reaching the estimate error for Sokcho and Geoje-Hongdo stations satisfied this condition with over two years of data, while Anmado station was found to satisfy this condition when using observational data of over three years. The confidence intervals of the significant wave height clearly show an increasing pattern when the percentile value of the wave height increases. Whereas, the confidence intervals of the mean wave period are nearly constant, at around 0.5 seconds except for the tail regions, i.e., 2.5- and 97.5-percentile values. The error bounds for 97.5-percentile values of the wave height necessary for harbor tranquility analysis were found to be 0.75 m, 0.5 m, and 1.2 m in Sokcho, Geoje-Hongdo, and Anmado, respectively.

Analysis of Confidence Interval of Design Wave Height Estimated Using a Finite Number of Data

It is estimated and analyzed that the design wave height and the confidence interval (hereafter CI) according to the return period using the fourteen-year wave data obtained at Pusan New Port. The functions used in the extreme value analysis are the Gumbel function, the Weibull function, and the Kernel function. The CI of the estimated wave heights was predicted using one of the Monte-Carlo simulation methods, the Bootstrap method. The analysis results of the estimated CI of the design wave height indicate that over 150 years of data is necessary in order to satisfy an approximately 10% CI. Also, estimating the number of practically possible data to be around 25~50, the allowable error was found to be approximately 16~22% for Type I PDF and 18~24% for Type III PDF. Whereas, the Kernel distribution method, a typical non-parametric method, shows that the CI of the method is below 40% in comparison with the CI of the other methods and the estimated design wave height is 1.2~1.6 m lower than that of the other methods.

Design of the dual-buoy wave energy converter based on actual wave data of East Sea

Abstract A new conceptual dual-buoy Wave Energy Converter (WEC) for the enhancement of energy extraction efficiency is suggested. Based on actual wave data, the design process for the suggested WEC is conducted in such a way as to ensure that it is suitable in real sea. Actual wave data measured in Korea’s East Sea (position: 36.404 N° and 129.274 E°) from May 1, 2002 to March 29, 2005 were used as the input wave spectrum for the performance estimation of the dual-buoy WEC. The suggested WEC, a point absorber type, consists of two concentric floating circular cylinders (an inner and a hollow outer buoy). Multiple resonant frequencies in proposed WEC affect the Power Ttake-off (PTO) performance of the WEC. Based on the numerical results, several design strategies are proposed to further enhance the extraction efficiency, including intentional mismatching among the heave natural frequencies of dual buoys, the natural frequency of the internal fluid, and the peak frequency of the input wave spectrum.

Analysis of the Observation Data for Winter-Season High Waves Occurred in the West Sea of Korea

Characteristics of high waves occurred in winter season on the west coast of Korea were investigated by analyzing the wave data observed at five observation locations. Records of four different high waves were subjected to the analysis together with the corresponding meteorological data during those time periods. The significant wave height reached its maximum of 6.42 m on December 4th, 2005. It was clarified that the high waves occurred due to strong wind fields that were formed over the west sea of Korea when the extra-tropical cyclone was excessively developed. Characteristics of the high waves generated in the west sea seemed to be predominantly wind sea as the temporal variation of the wave height at the coast were closely related to those of the wind speed measured at neighboring weather stations.

A study on the optimal equation of the continuous wave spectrum

Abstract Waves can be expressed in terms of a spectrum; that is, the energy density distribution of a representative wave can be determined using statistical analysis. The JONSWAP, PM and BM spectra have been widely used for the specific target wave data set during storms. In this case, the extracted wave data are usually discontinuous and independent and cover a very short period of the total data-recording period. Previous studies on the continuous wave spectrum have focused on wave deformation in shallow water conditions and cannot be generalized for deep water conditions. In this study, the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) function is proposed as a more-optimal function for the fitting of the continuous wave spectral shape based on long-term monitored point wave data in deep waters. The GEV function was found to be able to accurately reproduce the wave spectral shape, except for discontinuous waves of greater than 4 m in height.

Wave Height and Downtime Event Forecasting in Harbour with Complex Topography Using Auto-Regressive and Artificial Neural Networks Models

Recently, as the strength of winds and waves increases due to the climate change, abnormal waves such as swells have been also increased, which results in the increase of downtime events of loading/unloading in a harbour. To reduce the downtime events, breakwaters were constructed in a harbour to improve the tranquility. However, it is also important and useful for efficient port operation by predicting accurately and also quickly the downtime events when the harbour operation is in a limiting condition. In this study, numerical simulations were carried out to calculate the wave conditions based on the forecasted wind data in offshore area/outside harbour and also the long-term observation was carried out to obtain the wave data in a harbour. A forecasting method was designed using an auto-regressive (AR) and artificial neural networks (ANN) models in order to establish the relationship between the wave conditions calculated by wave model (SWAN) in offshore area and observed ones in a harbour. To evaluate the applicability of the proposed method, this method was applied to predict wave heights in a harbour and to forecast the downtime events in Pohang New Harbour with highly complex topography were compared. From the verification study, it was observed that the ANN model was more accurate than the AR model.