Open AccessAnalysis and wave tank verification of the performance of point absorber WECs with different configurations
Author(s) -
Li Xiaofan,
Martin Dillon,
Jiang Boxi,
Chen Shuo,
Thiagarajan Krish,
Parker Robert G.,
Zuo Lei
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iet renewable power generation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1752-1424
pISSN - 1752-1416
DOI - 10.1049/rpg2.12253
Subject(s) - cylinder , mooring , point (geometry) , marine engineering , power (physics) , energy (signal processing) , wave energy converter , coupling (piping) , rigid body , engineering , acoustics , mechanics , physics , mechanical engineering , mathematics , geometry , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics
Extracting energy from ocean waves has become a heated topic since the energy crisis of the 2000s. Among all the different concepts and designs of Wave Energy Converter (WEC), point absorber is a widely adopted type with great potential, and various configurations and constraints are applicable to it. Here, the point absorber WECs with four different set‐up configurations are explored: single body heaving WEC, two‐body heaving WEC, two‐body WEC with a flat plate (Reference Model 3), and a two‐body WEC with a cylinder‐shaped second body. Dynamic models are established for each case and wave tank tests are conducted for verification. The results show that the power capture of a point absorber can benefit from several aspects: the two‐body WEC with a streamlined shape can double the wave capture width ratio (up to 66.5%) over the single‐body WEC or Reference Model 3, while coupling other motion or mooring dynamics can further improve the capture width ratio by 12% by increasing the relative motion stroke.