Design features of the upcoming Coastal and Ocean Basin in Ostend, Belgium, for marine renewable energy applications

The new Coastal and Ocean Basin (COB) located at the Greenbridge Science Park in Ostend, Belgium is under construction since February 2017. The laboratory will provide a versatile facility that will make a wide range of physical modelling studies possible, including the ability to generate waves in combination with currents and wind at a wide range of model scales. The facility is serving the needs in Flanders, Belgium, in the fields of mainly offshore renewable energy and coastal engineering. The COB will allow users to conduct tests for coastal and offshore engineering research and commercial projects. The basin will have state-of-the-art generating and absorbing wavemakers, a current generation system, and a wind generator. It will be possible to generate waves and currents in the same, opposite and oblique directions. The basin is expected to be operational in 2019. This paper presents an overview of the basin’s capabilities, the ongoing work, and selected results from the design of the COB

Design features of the upcoming coastal and ocean basin in Ostend, Belgium

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London. The new Coastal and Ocean Basin (COB) at the Greenbridge Science Park in Ostend, Belgium is under design. The laboratory will provide a versatile facility that will make a wide range of testing possible, including the ability to generate waves in combination with currents and wind at a large range of model scales. The facility is part of the Gen4Wave project on offshore renewable energy and coastal engineering in Flanders, Belgium. The COB will allow users to conduct tests for coastal and offshore engineering projects as well as for research. The basin will have state-of-the-art generating and absorbing wavemakers, a recirculation current system, and a wind generator. It will be possible to generate wave-current interactions in the same, opposite and oblique directions. The basin is expected to be operational in 2017. This paper presents an overview of the basin’s capabilities, the ongoing work, and some results of the design work.location: Liège, Belgiumstatus: publishe