Publications Details

An approach for shear-stress based scour prediction

Coe, Ryan G.; Gillespie, Alice G.; Chartrand, Chris C.; Morrow, Mike; Delos-Reyes, Mike; Wendt, Fabian; Yu, Yi-Hsiang; Oskan-Haller, Tuba; Lomanaco, Pedro; Roberts, Jesse D.; Olson, Sterling S.; Jones, Craig

Scour beneath seafloor pipelines, cables, and other offshore infrastructure is a well-known problem. Recent interest in seafloor mounted wave energy converters brings another dynamic element into the traditional seafloor scour problem. In this paper, we consider the M3 Wave APEX device, which utilizes airflow between two flexible chambers to generate electricity from waves. In an initial at-sea deployment of a demonstration/experimental APEX in September 2014 off the coast of Oregon, scour beneath the device was observed. As sediment from the beneath the device was removed by scour, the device's pitch orientation was shifted. This change in pitch orientation caused a degradation in power performance. Characterizing the scour associated with seafloor mounted wave energy conversion devices such as the M3 device is the objective of the present work.