Review of marine current speed and power coefficient — Mathematical models

The knowledge of the mathematical models of ocean currents and of power coefficients is necessary for a complete marine current generator systems modeling. Review of these models is the topic of this paper. For any of the listed marine current mathematical models, simulation results of marine current velocity as a function of time is presented. Also, using the mathematical model of ocean currents based on the first order Stockes model, the time-dependence of the marine current speed, as a function of the ocean depth, across horizontal and vertical axis, is presented. On the other hand, as the marine current turbines are similar in many aspects to wind turbine technologies, mathematical models of the wind power coefficients are used for mathematical description of the marine power coefficients. The experimental results of the marine power coefficient are fitted using the proposed mathematical equation. All mentioned mathematical models are implemented, and simulation results obtained, using the software package MATLAB.