Abstract
In this study, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) records sampled at 0.5 s intervals at the Mutriku wave farm, covering the period from August 2018 to July 2019, were analyzed. The dataset was decomposed into more than 3.2 million individual pressure cycles of varying duration within the air chamber and subsequently examined following their classification into nine daily sea state categories. On this basis, 7353 operating points, relating instantaneous pressure, rotational speed, and generated power, were identified and employed to fit the operational surface of the Mutriku plant.
The relationship between the air-chamber dynamics and oceanic conditions at the nearest ERA5 grid point was also investigated. The results indicate that the air chamber exhibits the characteristics of a resonant cavity, in which the mean wave period and wave amplitude are directly associated with the cycle duration and the pressure developed within the chamber, respectively.
Finally, the adherence of the wave farm records and ERA5 open-ocean variables to Zipf’s law was evaluated. This preliminary assessment enabled the identification of variables that comply with Zipf’s law and those that do not. This constitutes an initial step toward a systematic investigation of the extent to which oceanic variables follow Zipf’s law.