Numerical Investigation of Multi-body Wave Energy Converters’ Configuration

Abstract

We investigate the performance of multi-body wave energy converters (WECs). This investigation considers multiple scattering of water waves by the buoys of a WEC under the generalized mode approach. Predominantly, the effect of a WEC’s configuration on its energy extraction is studied in this research. First, single-row terminator and single-column attenuator arrays of vertical cylinders have been studied. The performance of these attenuator arrays shows that the wall effect induced by the periodic buoys influences the wave propagation and energy extraction in these WECs. Further studies show that a single-row terminator array of vertical cylinders performs better than the corresponding single-column attenuator array. Subsequently, multi-row terminator arrays of vertical cylinders are investigated by conducting a parametric study. This parametric study shows that the hydrodynamic property of three resonance phenomena makes energy extraction efficiency drop down, and the magnitude of energy extracted oscillates between the resonance points in these WECs. Finally, a 4×8 terminator array of vertical cylinders is studied to determine the effect of various dx (x-directional distance between adjacent rows) within this WEC on its performance. In particular, this study enforces at least two equal dx values within the 4×8 terminator array of vertical cylinders. It shows that a small value of this dx leads to better energy extraction efficiency in some of these various dx arrays than that of a corresponding regular array with the same dx.