RiaSoR2 builds on Phase 1 of the project, which focused on the development of a theoretical reliability assessment guideline for wave energy converters and tidal energy converters, and is aiming to enable developers to validate their findings and establish a practical, condition-based monitoring platform to prepare for future arrays, where big data handling and processing will be vital to drive down operational expenditure.
The project is funded through the OceanERANET initiative and led by the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE). RiaSoR2 brings together the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, Alkit Communications, Synective Labs, CorPower Ocean, Waves4Power, Cruz Atcheson and OceanHarvesting to offer a comprehensive suite of testing methodologies to wave and tidal developers that will enable a systematic approach to achieve optimal reliability and performance, while minimising cost and time-to-market.
The RiaSoR 1 reliability guideline built upon established practices from the automotive industry where a monitoring framework is applied to a fleet of test-vehicles. Through design iterations, the reliability is improved, and a final reduced set of sensors are deployed in a commercial vehicle.
For RiaSoR 2, components for monitoring will be equipped with several sensors to collect required data, which will then be fed into the reliability process to reduce uncertainties. Sea tests will act as case studies to feed the methodologies and training into the guideline.
The findings from this will then be disseminated to other WEC and TEC developers, and the wider industry.
“Reliability testing is tough to do in the sea” said Elaine Buck, EMEC’s Technical Manager. “RiaSoR 2 is about establishing a methodology and testing programme so we can gather data between device installation through to mean time to failure."
Johannes Hüffmeier, RISE added that earlier this year, the RiaSoR 2 consortium held a workshop in Stockholm which resulted in an appropriate aim and scope being developed for the monitoring guideline. The discussion focused on the methods that are suitable to derive cost-efficient monitoring systems based on key performance indicators and featured a useful brainstorming session around requirements on sensors, system architecture and devices.
The project will be producing a report on condition-based monitoring and sensing techniques for ocean energy devices available shortly.
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