Page 216 - Fundamentals of Ocean Renewable Energy Generating Electricity From The Sea

Ocean Modelling for Resource Characterization Chapter | 8 205

the analysis of tidal turbine blades or the structural design of ocean renewable
energy devices (e.g. [6]).
In FEM, the domain is first discretized into a number of elements (see
Fig. 8.10 as an example). These elements are generated such that higher
resolution (i.e. smaller element size) is obtained in places of interest (such as
near the coastline in Fig. 8.10).

FIG. 8.10 An example of a finite element triangular mesh used to simulate tides and storm surge
over Atlantic coast of the United States. The mesh has 3,110,470 nodes and 6,114,065 elements,
with a mean size of 333 m (10 m to ∼121 km) [7].