In order for wave energy conversion to be a commercially viable technology, wave energy researchers, developers, investors and utilities need an estimate of a wave energy converter's (WEC) power output at a potential installation site. The wind industry has developed generic turbine models that capture the general dynamics of largescale proprietary wind turbine designs in order to estimate a turbine's power output for a given wind climate. Similar generic models need to be developed for WECs. Current WEC deigns vary significantly in design and technology. The focus of this paper is on developing a generic model structure for one of the prominent WEC designs, the two body point absorber. The model structure is developed by using time domain equations of motion (EOM) to define systems and subsystems as well as their corresponding inputs and outputs. The generic model structure is then extended by developing a hydraulic power take-off (PTO) system model.
The Wave Energy Converter Simulator (WEC-Sim) is an open-source code jointly developed by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It is used to model wave energy converters subjected to operational and extreme waves. In order for the WEC-Sim code to be beneficial to the wave energy community, code verification and physical model validation is necessary. This paper describes numerical modeling of the wave tank testing for the 1:33-scale experimental testing of the floating oscillating surge wave energy converter. The comparison between WEC-Sim and the Phase 1 experimental data set serves as code validation. This paper is a follow-up to the WEC-Sim paper on experimental testing, and describes the WEC-Sim numerical simulations for the floating oscillating surge wave energy converter.
As the ocean wave energy field continues to mature, developers need a generic modeling methodology to test their designs before building prototypes. A design methodology for a first-pass time-domain simulation is a goal of this work. Built on results from the frequency domain analysis, the general procedure for obtaining time domain results is presented. Wave energy researchers and developers can use this design guide as a step in the process of obtaining a cost of energy estimate for their device. Promoting the development of wave energy converters by providing a sound modeling methodology is an aim of this research.
If wave energy technology is to mature to commercial success, array optimization could play a key role in that process. This paper outlines physical and numerical modeling of an array of five oscillating water column wave energy converters. Numerical model simulations are compared with experimental tank test data for a non-optimal and optimal array layout. Results show a max increase of 12% in average power for regular waves, and 7% for irregular waves between the non-optimized and optimized layouts. The numerical model matches well under many conditions; however, improvement is needed to adjust for phase errors. This paper outlines the process of numerical and physical array testing, providing methodology and results helpful for researchers and developers working with wave energy converter arrays.
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