A cost-efficient seabed survey for bottom-mounted OWC on King Island, Tasmania, Australia

This paper presents results from a site assessment for a gravity foundation Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Wave Energy Converter (WEC) designed by Wave Swell Energy (WSE), an Australian wave energy developer. A potential candidate site for this device is the west coast of King Island, Tasmania in relatively shallow water (~ 10 m LAT). The survey included geotechnical data obtained by sub-bottom profiles, seabed imagery, benthic samples and cores with the aid of SCUBA diving as well as short-term deployment of hydromechanics instruments. Our results show that the device can be placed in an area with enough sand coverage and sufficient bearing capacity. However, the location exhibits evidence of scour and an active sediment regime, which requires a more detailed analysis of the long-term sediment transport processes and associated environmental impacts on a gravity foundation structure

Development of mathematical pathways for VET students to articulate to related higher education courses: a focus on engineering

Australia needs more qualified professionals in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas. The national focus on widening participation in higher education (HE) includes strengthening pathways from vocational education and training (VET). VET students often lack the mathematics skills necessary to articulate successfully to their chosen university degrees. Current approaches such as bridging and foundation mathematics programs are not tailored or sufficiently contextualised for VET articulants. This project is developing a mathematics pathway designed to improve the readiness of VET engineering diploma graduates for higher education study in engineering degree programs. Arrangements are flexible so that students can complete these pathways either as part of their engineering diploma as a VET student or as part of preparatory study at the diploma level at university. Many VET students are granted credit when entering a HE course in engineering and can transfer directly to second year units which may assume a level of mathematical knowledge by the university. However, in the VET Diploma of Engineering Technical (MEM50212), there is only one core unit in mathematics (MEM30012A) equivalent to year 9 level and there are two mathematics electives, MEM23004A and MEM23007A, which are part of the advanced diploma and often not taught by many TAFE providers due to student demand and staff capabilities. The lack of required mathematics often leaves the student with a large gap in the required knowledge for success in HE. The project has been underway for over a year and significant progress has been made in developing the pathway for engineering. To date, the mathematical knowledge outcomes from the VET courses have been mapped to the requirements of the HE courses at the University of Tasmania, Flinders University and James Cook University. Gaps in mathematical knowledge have been identified. A formal articulation agreement has been established through TasTAFE and the University of Tasmania where current VET students will be able to enroll in the university foundation mathematics units and receive credit towards their VET diploma in engineering. In addition to the foundation units, the students need to do an online component. This consists of a few compulsory topics which are not covered in the foundation units with supporting examples, practice problems, practical application and self-assessed quizzes for each mathematics topic covered in the foundation units, contextualised to engineering. VET students are applied learners and therefore often struggle with the transition to HE. The online component of the pathway is designed to support the student by providing the context to the mathematics they are learning. Another advantage of the pathway is that it exposes the VET students to HE units and the university environment while satisfying the university mathematics entry requirements

Development of the Tamar River tidal test facility

Performing full scale field testing is a key stage in developing a tidal turbine. This generally occurs during Technical Readiness Levels (TRL) 6-9 and is associated with difficulty in attracting funding and large one off capital costs without an associated income stream. It therefore poses a large obstacle in the development of commercially-ready devices. The advancement of purpose built test facilities such as the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) can substantially reduce risks and costs to technology developers by providing berths with foundations and moorings, site characterisation and vessels for deployment support. This paper presents the development of a tidal test facility in the Tamar River estuary in Tasmania, Australia. The process for site identification, site characterisation including bathymetry and mooring design are detailed and ADCP velocity profiles for the low flow site are presented. Key findings from the work performed included requiring a strong understanding of environmental parameters in restricted water such as estuaries and the challenges in designing cost effective tidal mooring systems due to the lack of sediment present at highly energetic sites. Further development at the high flow sites includes the use of a purpose built test barge and grid connection

Development of mathematical pathways for VET students to articulate to related higher education courses

Australia needs more qualified professionals in the STEM areas. The national focus on widening participation in higher education (HE) includes strengthening pathways from vocational education and training (VET). VET students often lack the mathematics skills necessary to articulate successfully to their chosen degrees. Current approaches such as bridging and foundation mathematics programs are not tailored or sufficiently contextualised for VET articulants. An Office for Learning and Teaching project focused on developing contextualised mathematics pathways for four key disciplines (education, engineering, business and health science) in order to facilitate the transition from VET courses to higher education and increase student confidence and readiness. This project is led by the University of Tasmania and partners with Flinders University, James Cook University and the University of Notre Dame Australia. In the first year of the project (2013), mathematics pathways were developed for engineering and education and followed by business and health science in 2014. This project has recently concluded and the pathway to engineering has been active for over a year. A formal articulation agreement has been established through TasTAFE and the University of Tasmania where current VET students are able to enroll in university foundation mathematics units and receive credit towards their VET diploma in engineering. In addition to the foundation units, the students are required to do an online component. This consists of a few compulsory topics which are not covered in the foundation units with supporting examples, practice problems, practical application and self-assessed quizzes for each mathematics topic covered in the foundation units, contextualised to engineering. VET students are applied learners and therefore often struggle with the transition to HE. The online component of the pathway has been designed to support the student by providing the context to the mathematics they are learning. Another advantage of the pathway is that it exposes the VET students to HE units and the university environment while satisfying the university mathematics entry requirements. This presentation describes the process of the pathway development and the opportunities for cross sectoral course support and delivery

Tidal energy in Australia – Assessing resource and feasibility to Australia’s future energy mix

This paper presents an overview and progress of a recently commenced three year project funded by the Australian Renewable Energy National Agency led by the Australian Maritime College, (University of Tasmania), in partnership with CSIRO and University of Queensland. The project has a strong industry support (OpenHydro Ltd, Atlantis Resources Limited, MAKO Tidal Turbines Ltd, Spiral Energy Corporation Ltd and BioPower Systems Ltd) and aims at assessing the technical and economic feasibility of tidal energy in Australia, based on the best understanding of resource achievable. The project consists of three interlinked components to support the emerging tidal energy sector. Component 1 will deliver a National Australian high-resolution tidal resource assessment; in Component 2, case studies at two promising locations for energy extraction will be carried out; lastly, Component 3 will deliver technological and economic feasibility assessment for tidal energy integration to Australia’s electricity infrastructure. The outcomes of this project will provide considerable benefit to the emerging tidal energy industry, the strategic-level decision makers of the Australian energy sector, and the management of Australian marine resources by helping them to understand the resource, risks and opportunities available

Development of mathematical pathways for vet students to articulate to related higher education courses

Australia needs more qualified professionals in the areas of engineering, education, health and other sciences. The national focus on widening participation in higher education (HE) includes strengthening pathways from vocational education and training (VET). VET students often lack the mathematics skills necessary to articulate successfully to their chosen degrees. Current approaches such as bridging and foundation mathematics programs, and university in-degree support, are fragmented and not tailored or sufficiently contextualised for VET articulants. Flexible approaches are needed that enable institutions to assess the numeracy skills of VET articulants and provide resources and support to build their mathematical skills and confidence. This project is developing a series of mathematics pathways designed to improve the readiness of VET qualified students for higher education study in the areas of engineering, education and health science. Year 1 of this project focuses on engineering and education. The main VET qualifications and HE education courses have been identified and mapping the mathematical gap in knowledge between the two is underway. Mathematical pathways will be delivered as Open Education Resources and designed to be delivered flexibly. This presentation will review the progress on the mathematical pathway development and review the gaps that exist between the two sectors

Wave-turbulence decomposition methods applied to tidal energy site assessment

High levels of turbulence have been proven to substantially increase the blade loadings on tidal turbines, outlining the need of properly characterizing turbulence parameters in tidal energy sites. The presence of long surface gravity waves may cause a significant bias on the estimation of these parameters, which requires wave-turbulence decomposition methods that are currently missing from guidelines. Here, three techniques of decomposing wave and turbulence are tested: the stopband filter (SB), moving average filter (MA), and synchrosqueezing wavelet transform (SWT). The study site, Banks Strait, Tasmania, is a 16 km wide channel that presents high potential for tidal energy generation. Wave peak periods at the study site were found to vary mostly between 7 and 12 s, with maximum exceeding 15 s. Turbulence intensities (TI), turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and integral scales are quantified. Our results indicate differences between the estimates obtained from each method. The MA highly underestimates turbulence, resulting in TI values which were nearly 50% lower than those obtained from other decomposition methods. While TI and TKE estimated from the SB and the SWT techniques are quite similar, integral length scales are considerably underestimated by the SB. These findings reveal that the SWT is a more reliable method because of the more accurate estimates of turbulence parameters and indicate the need of establishing guidelines which address wave-turbulence decomposition in tidal stream energy site assessments. Despite having shown to be quite a versatile technique, further investigation of its applicability in data from other prospective tidal energy sites is necessary to fully assess the generality of the SWT technique