Ocean currents

Development of a baseline design protocol for cathodic protection retrofits of offshore structures is becoming an increasingly important topic in light of the large number of structures operating beyond their original cp system design life. One of the critical steps in this development is determination of the total anode mass which is required to continue sufficient cathodic protection for which structure current demand must be established. Three current demand determination methods were investigated including the Gaussian ammeter, the Potential method, which utilizes the driving potential and anode resistance in its current calculation, and the IR Drop method. To this end, three anodes were deployed at the Naval Research Laboratory, Key West, Fl., and current output determinations were made upon these. Each of the three current measurement methods was evaluated on the basis of accuracy, reliability and feasibility in field use.

Aquantis, LLC, Santa Barbara, California intends to construct and deploy an ocean current turbine (C-Plane) to extract electrical power from the kinetic energy of the Florida Current. This study characterizes the physical oceanographic environment of the Florida Current flow, at a proposed deployment site located at 26.11 North Latitude, 79.50 West Longitude, which will influence the physical and mechanical design of the C-Plane. Local characteristic features of the Florida Current were determined from data collected during a 19 month in situ study using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) moored at 330 meters, a ship-mounted, inertial-correcting ADCP, and data culled from adjacent studies. Principles of physical oceanography and direct observations are applied to characterize the velocity structure of the current and its variability. This thesis presents the motivation behind the study, methods of data collection, statistical and numerical analyses, and available energy analyses.