GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Armoring refers to the protection of surface layers of an embankment by rock

or specifically designed concrete units such as dolosse.

Barrier or Barrage is a permanent structure created within a coastal waterway

to control both water level and discharge in an estuary by means of gates;
barrage is a relatively low structure that controls water in the estuary gen
erally within its natural range and often does not need to be as impervious
as a river dam.

Barring is a term used in the thermal generation industry to indicate a turbine

that is in a state of readiness for load acceptance. When "on barring," a
turbine rotor is turning slowly under the supplementary power of a barring
motor or barring gear. The purpose of barring is twofold: When not is use,
the slow rotation of the rotor prevents the oil film protecting the bear
ings from being squeezed out by the static weight of the unit; after full
load rejection, barring is used to minimize heat shock and ensure uniform
cooling. The term originates from the original method of using crowbars
inserted into holes in wheels that were used for turning.

Base Load is the minimum load imposed on an electrical system over a speci
fied period of time. A base-loaded generation unit is dedicated to meeting
a more-or-Iess continuous electrical demand.

Bathymetry is the depth configuration of the ocean floor.

Elements of Tidal-Electric Engineering. By Robert H. Clark

Copyright 2007 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

255

256

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Benefit/Cost Ratio as used in this text is the ratio of the present worth, net
benefits of savings (viz. net of operating costs) to the electrical utility
system, to the present worth of cost and maintenance of the tidal-electric
development.

Blank (or Blind) Caisson is one with no openings for water flow and may be
used instead of embankment.

Caisson is a watertight vessel, buoyant under its own weight, that can be
floated into a predetermined location and then sunk in place as an element
by flooding; for the proposed tidal power technology skeletal powerhouse
and sluiceway modules could be constructed offsite and, after accurate
placement on the barrage alignment completed thereafter in situ or the
turbogenerator and gates could be fitted in the respective caissons before
floating them to the site.

Capacity Contribution or Firm Capacity of a tidal power scheme is measured

by the total installed capacity of other conventional generating plants that
would otherwise have to be constructed to meet the same electrical power
demand with the same loss of load probability.

Cofferdam is a temporary structure, often of steel-sheet pilings, erected to

exclude water from an area that would normally be submerged to facilitate
the construction of foundations under dry conditions.

Constant Dollar values are expressed in unit prices considered to prevail at

a particular point in time, usually at a specific time within the feasibility
study.

Conventional Generating Stations in the context of this text employ estab

lished technologies and are river hydroelectric, coal, oil, gas, and nuclear
power stations.

Coriolis Effect causes a body moving over Earth to be deflected from a

straight path relative to the Earth's surface because Earth is rotating; this
is termed the Coriolis effect (after the French scientist who first described
it) and in the northern hemisphere is always to the right; thus, for example,
water in the Bay of Fundy tends to pile up along the New Brunswick,
Canada, shoreline.

Current Dollar values are expressed in unit prices considered to prevail at

the actual time that expenditures are incurred or revenues received; future
current dollar values can be estimated by increasing the constant dollar
prices by price inflation factors pertinent to the period and subject under
consideration.

Cycling of an electrical generating plant describes the periodic running

up and down of its output; for some types of plant this can result in
penalties to thermal efficiency, maintenance requirements, and plant
lifetime.

Dso (in millimeters or meters) is the median size of particle acceptable for
quarry-run rockfill material for the construction of dikes.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

257

Diurnal Constituent of a tidal wave form is one that has a periodicity that is
close to the duration of a solar day.

Diversity of Supply in an electrical generating system relates to the number of

types of generating plant and fuels used; with increased diversity, the risk
of failure to meet electricity demand, such as through plant-type faults or
fuel shortage, is reduced.

Double-Effect operation refers to the generation of tidal power on both the

ebb and flood tides.

Double-Regulated turbine is one with two separate methods of regulating the

water flow and hence power output, viz. a turbine with adjustable guide
or distributor vanes (also known as wicket gates) and adjustable runner
blades.

Drydock or Graving Dock is a docking facility accessible to the ocean in which

the powerhouse and sluiceway module caissons would be constructed so
that, after fabrication, they could be floated in place by flooding the dock
and then towed out for placement in the barrage.

Ebb Generation is the mode of tidal power generation in which water passes
through the turbines in the same direction as the ebb tide, i.e., from the
basin to the sea.

Ecosystem is a community of organisms and their environment.

Energy Potential is used to describe the amount of energy that could theoreti
cally be extracted from the tides at a given barrage site by using very large
numbers of turbines.

Estuary is that segment of a river influenced by the tide of the water body
into which it flows.

Fetch is a measure of the distance over water in the direction of a wind current
over which wind-induced waves are assumed to build in amplitude.

Firm Capacity is the capacity of a given generation unit or system of units that
is expected to be available, when required, to meet a load demand.

Flood Generation is a mode of tidal power operation in which water passes

through the turbines in the same direction as the flood tide, i.e., from the
sea to the basin.

Foreshore is the zone between low water and high water.

Generator Rating, or rated electrical output, is the normal maximum
output.

Geostrophic Coefficient, y, is used in the tidal regime modeling analyses and

is the effective component of the Coriolis force in the horizontal plane;
algebraically, it is defined by the equation r

2Qsin8 wherein Q is the

angular rotational velocity of Earth (7.27 x 1O-5rad/s) and e is the latitude

of the location of interest.

Harmonic Analysis is a procedure used to compute, from observational data,

the individual amplitudes and phases of significant tidal constituents that
make up the complex form of a tidal wave.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS

HHWLT, higher high water large tides; this level is the highest that can be
predicted from the available tidal constitutent information.

Ice (Cake Ice) is composed of individual masses of ice that may combine to
form part of an extensive pack; cake ice aggregates in bays and estuaries
and increases in thickness due to the periodic accretion of layers of frozen
muddy water and sediment as it grounds at low tide.

Ice (Sheet Ice) is a regular ice cover that is free of deformities (ridging, rafting,
and overlapping) caused by pressure.

Ice (Shorefast Ice) remains attached to shores and banks in estuaries and
embayments and can build up to great thicknesses where steep gradients
and rocky terrain prevail in the intertidal zone.

Intertidal Area is the zone of the seabed between low water and high water.
LLWLT, lower low water large tides; this level is the lowest that can be pre
dicted from the available tidal constituent information.

Levelized Cost (of energy) is a weighted average cost of energy production

over a specified period of time determined by utilizing price discounting
procedures (see Present Worth): In this text, it is the present value of the
production cost of the energy that is displaced by tidal-generated energy
divided by the amount of energy displaced discounted at the same rate. In
algebraic terms it may be defined by

Levelized cost

I /I
il

where Ei

Ci
d

b+dg

il

b+dg

energy displaced in year, i

production cost of the energy displaced in year, i
discount rate.

(Note that Ci

Ei x mi, where mi is the unit production cost of the displaced

energy.)

Load Duration Curve is a (graphical) representation of the relationship

between time and the electrical demand of the system, i.e., it is a plot of
load demand for each time interval under consideration.

Load Factor is the ratio of the average demand to the maximum or peak
demand over a specified time period.

Lunar (Tidal) Day is the duration of a single rotation of Earth on its axis
relative to the moon. Its average is about 24h and 50min of mean solar
time.

Mathematical Model is used synonomously with numerical model.

Merit Order is a list of generating plant in ascending order of avoidable gen
erating cost.

Multiplier Effect is a term used to describe the phenomenon whereby the

wealth injected into a community as a result of a large project indirectly
leads to new jobs in the locality other than those resulting directly from
the project.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

259

Numerical Model is a mathematical simulation of a real situation or a real

process or effect typically involving complex variations of state in time or
space, or both.

Overburden is the overlying stratum of soil relative to an elevation of inter

est, frequently used to refer to all soil materials overlying the bedrock and
often used to include all unconsolidated and weak materials lying above a
proposed foundation level.

Peak Demand is the maximum capacity demand on an electrical supply system

over a specified period of time.

Piping is a form of a failure in a permeable granular structure that is caused

by either scour or subsurface erosion. It occurs, e.g., near the downstream
toe of a water-retaining embankment, when the pressure gradient resulting
from seepage is sufficient to induce motion in the soil particles within which
the seepage is taking place.

Present Worth or Value is the measure of value ascribed to investments

and revenues in this text; it represents the value, in a base year, of a
dollar in any other year or a series of dollar values over a number of
years, after adjustment for the effects of price inflation; alternative
descriptions for present worth commonly used are "present value" and
"discounted value".

Resonance is the enhanced amplification of a tide, the frequency of which is

close to the natural frequency of oscillation of water in an estuary.

Semidiurnal Constituents of the tidal wave form are those that exhibit a peri
odicity that is close to one-half of the duration of a solar day; in the Bay
of Fundy, Canada, e.g., the semidiurnal constituents are much greater than
the diurnal constituents.

Significant Wave Height is computed as the mean of the largest one-third of

the waves for each storm condition evaluated.

Single-Effect operation of a tidal power development in this text (and gener

ally) refers to generation only on the ebb tide.

Spectral Analysis is a method of analyzing a complex wave form expressed

as a time series to determine which frequencies display the maximum
energy.

Synchronized. The output of a turbogenerator is said to be synchronized with

the system grid when the waveform of its alternating electrical output is
locked in phase with the grid.

System Cost is the total cost of meeting electricity demand and is the sum of
various elements, such as capital, fuel, maintenance, overhead, etc.

System Security refers to the degree of assurance with which the generating
system can meet the annual peak in electrical demand; such assurance is
obtained by installing a generating plant with a total rated capacity in excess

of this peak to allow for plant availability in winter, load estimating errors,
and weather of unusual severity.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Thermal Cycling refers to a method of utilizing a thermal generation plant in

the midpart of the load-duration curve whereby the plant output is continu
ally varied to meet changes in the pattern of demand.

Tide is the effect on the waters of Earth by the gravitational attraction of celes
tial bodies, principally the moon and to a lesser extent the sun, whereby
they tend to become elevated at a point beneath the moon (and at the oppo
site side of Earth's circumference to this location) and hence depressed
at points midway between these locations; in the Bay of Fundy, Canada,
where the semidiurnal constituents of gravitational attraction are domi
nant, the result is a twice daily (lunar day) inflow and outflow of a tidal
wave relative to the coastline.

Tide (Ebb) is the efflux of tidal waters away from a coastline.

Tide (Flood) is the influx or rising stage of tidal movement toward a
coastline.

Tide (Neap) is a lower than average high tide that occurs when the moon is
in the first or third quarter and its graviational attraction is opposed to that
of the sun.

Tide (Spring) is a higher than average tide that occurs when the moon is
new or full and its gravitational attraction is complementary to that of the
sun.

Tidal Amplitude is one-half of the tidal range.

Tidal Constituents are the individual, sinusoidal waveforms that collectively
produce a tide. The principal constituents identified in the text are:
M2-the principal lunar semidiurnal constituent (and by far the largest tidal
component) with a speed of 28.984 degrees/mean solar hour (o/msh).
N2-the larger lunar elliptic semidiurnal component with a speed of
28.440/msh.
L2-the smaller lunar elliptic semidiurnal component with a speed of
29.528/msh.
K2-a

lunar

declinational

semidiurnal

component

with

speed

of

30.082/msh.
S2-the principal solar semidiurnal component with a speed of 30.0000/msh.
Kl-a lunar declinational diurnal constituent with a speed of 15.0410/msh.
OJ-lunar declinational diurnal constituent with a speed of 13.943/msh.
t12-a minor semidiurnal component with a speed of 27.968/msh.
V2-a minor semidiurnal component with a speed of 28.513/msh.

Tidal Phase is the lag time of appearance of high tide between the various
locations experiencing the same tide; the phase is a reflection of wave
celerity and is expressed in degrees relative to the duration of a full cycle
represented by 360; e.g., the duration of a full M2 cycle is about 12 h
and 25 min corresponding to its speed of nearly 29 per hour (see Tidal
Constituents).

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

261

Tidal Range is the elevation difference between successive high and low water
levels at a specified location during the passage of a tide.

Tidal Regime describes the predictable behavioral characteristics of the tides

under natural gravitational influence, i.e., not pertaining to meteorological
disturbances.

Turbidity is a measure of the opacity of water from which the amount of sus
pended solids in the water may be inferred.

Units T ( tera )
G (giga )
M ( mega )

1012
109

k ( kilo )

11 ( micro )

103
10-6

106

Wave Climate defines the behavioral height characteristics of waves under the
influences of wind currents.

Wetland is an area of relatively poorly drained land with its characteristic

ecosystem.

Wind Setup is the height or superelevation of a water body above its natural
level caused by the impact of wind stress across its surface.