Sandia Water Controls Workshop, Carderock Tour to coincide with upcoming ICOE conference

Recent success at the two-day Floating Oscillating Surge Wave Energy Device (FOSWEC) Workshop at Oregon State University has Sandia National Laboratories Water Power Technologies researchers energized to bring their Controls Workshop and Carderock Tour to the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE 2020) this spring.

“In Oregon, about 30 workshop attendees learned about the experimental device called the FOSWEC,” said Water PI Ryan Coe. “It was a worthwhile effort with both experimental components—where students were in wave tank getting to see how the experiment was run, how the results looked, and how to process the results, and then were able to connect that with a theoretical basis from classroom components.”

While the upcoming ICOE Controls Workshop and Carderock Tour will employ a similar format, the Water team’s big red and white “WaveBot” will be the focus. Sandia scientists including Coe, Giorgio Bacelli and Dominic Forbush, and the Navy’s Maneuvering and Sea Keeping (MASK) basin personnel will talk through an integrated approach to designing, modeling, testing and controlling a wave energy converter.

“We have what we believe to be a simple, effective, and practical set a tools along with a workflow for WEC design and testing. We’re trying to share this information with as many people as possible,” said Coe. “Demonstrating this approach on the hardware provides people with that additional excitement and intuition that comes with seeing something in real life.”

Facilitating these meetings in conjunction with ICOE is a special opportunity for the researchers. For the first time ICOE will be held within the United States, and people will be coming from around the world to Washington, DC. It also happens that the facility where the Sandia Water team tests its hardware is right up the road in Bethesda, MD.

The Controls Workshop will be held Monday, May 18, 2020, at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, in Bethesda, MD. The cost to attend the all-day event is $85 and covers round-trip shuttle to and from the Marriott Marquis, coffee/tea and an afternoon snack. Researchers, developers and others interested in learning about WEC modeling, control and design are encouraged to attend.

The Carderock Tour will take place Thursday, May 21, 2020, at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, in Bethesda, MD. The fee to attend is $40 and covers the cost of the round-trip shuttle to and from the Marriott Marquis. ICOE attendees interested in observing wave tank testing should consider attending the tour.