Turbines in Florida Current


grad_meeting_201112.pptx




Atlantic configuration of HYCOM :


  1. ✓ 1/12º horizontal resolution (~7-8km)

  2. ✓ 32 hybrid layers

  3. ✓ Climatological initial conditions (T,S) from GDEM3

  4. ✓ Climatological atmospheric forcing from ERA40

  5. ✓ Start from a 10 year spin-up

Localization of the turbine array: 25.7ºN

Experimental set-up:

4 Simulations of 3 years :

  1. •  control simulation (CONTROL)

  2. •  4 “turbine farms” at 25.7ºN (TURB_CT=0.1)

  3. •  12 “turbine farms” across the 25.7ºN section (TURB_CT=0.1_WALL1)

  4. •  wall of turbines across the 25.7ºN section over 12 layers (TURB_CT=0.1_WALL12)

Transports:

Six sections are considered:

29ºN

25.7ºN

78.6ºW

80.9ºW

Transport at 25.7ºN:

(At the location of the turbine array)

Downstream Transport at 29ºN:

Upstream Transports at 80.9ºW and Yucatan:

Detoured Transports at 78.6ºW and Haiti:

with CT=0.1

Yucatan

Haiti

Section at 25.7ºN of the northward velocity averaged over year 3.

Section at 79.76ºW of the northward velocity averaged over year 3.

Impact on the circulation of the basin:

Impact of the turbines at 25.7ºN

Kinetic Energy integrated over the water column averaged over year 3

Difference of Kinetic Energy integrated over the water column averaged over year 3 with the CONTROL one.

Impact on Power availability

Mean Kinetic Energy over the basin

Summary

3 cases with different distribution of “turbines” in the Florida Current:

2 “reasonable” cases with 4 “turbines” and 12 “turbines”

  1. • Flow decelerated at the surface but compensated at depth

  2. • Circulation and transports remain similar to observations

  3. • Kinetic Energy over the basin is slightly decreased

  4. • ~20GW as in the observations


1 “extreme” case with turbines over the first 180m-200m of the 25.7ºN section

  1. • Flow strongly decelerated without compensation at depth

  2. • Transports at half the observations at 25.7ºN and upstream

  3. • Detour of the flow of about 3Sv at 78W and 12Sv between Cuba and Haiti

  4. • No change of the transport at 29ºN

  5. • Kinetic Energy over the basin is decreased

  6. • power availability of ~3.4GW

NEW RESULTS

SSH anomaly for the CONTROL and the difference (Turb-CONTROL)  for year 1.

Streamfunction of the 25 first layers for CONTROL (top left) and the difference (Turb-CONTROL)  for year 3.