A Parametric Study of Wave Energy Converter Layouts in Real Wave Models

Abstract

Ocean wave energy is a broadly accessible renewable energy source; however, it is not fully developed. Further studies on wave energy converter (WEC) technologies are required in order to achieve more commercial developments. In this study, four CETO6 spherical WEC arrangements have been investigated, in which a fully submerged spherical converter is modelled. The numerical model is applied using linear potential theory, frequency-domain analysis, and irregular wave scenario. We investigate a parametric study of the distance influence between WECs and the effect of rotation regarding significant wave direction in each arrangement compared to the pre-defined layout. Moreover, we perform a numerical landscape analysis using a grid search technique to validate the best-found power output of the layout in real wave models of four locations on the southern Australian coast. The results specify the prominent role of the distance between WECs, along with the relative angle of the layout to dominant wave direction, in harnessing more power from the waves. Furthermore, it is observed that a rise in the number of WECs contributed to an increase in the optimum distance between converters. Consequently, the maximum exploited power from each buoy array has been found, indicating the optimum values of the distance between buoys in different real wave scenarios and the relative angle of the designed layout with respect to the dominant in-site wave direction.

Open Data and Models for Energy and Environment

“…Cardone and Gargiulo [4], in the fourth paper of this special issue, describe a semiempirical model of a scroll compressor to predict the power consumption and the mass flow rate by considering leakages and mechanical losses. The next paper, by Amini et al [5], performs a parametric study on wave energy converter layouts, investigating the distance influence and the effect of rotation regarding significant wave direction in each arrangement compared to the predefined layout. The sixth paper of this special issue, by Chiosa et al [6], proposes an innovative anomaly detection and diagnosis methodology to automatically detect anomalous energy consumption in buildings, in addition to performing a diagnosis on the sub-loads that are responsible for anomalous patterns.…”

Adaptive control of damaged structures by using smart tunable liquid column gas damper considering dynamic soil–structure interaction

“…There has been a great interest in identifying and detecting damages in dynamic systems by measured data in civil engineering (Chen et al, 1995; Amini et al, 2020, 2021; Amini and Karami, 2012). Parametric estimation is a system identification technique in which sample data are used to estimate the parameters of a distribution.…”

Building Suitable Datasets for Soft Computing and Machine Learning Techniques from Meteorological Data Integration: A Case Study for Predicting Significant Wave Height and Energy Flux

“…Wave energy exhibits a more stable power supply than wind energy and even solar energy. In recent years, Wave Energy Converters (WECs) [24] have been developed and widely installed, even arranged in array form [25], to transform this wave energy into electricity, which can be injected into the electric network or supplied to existing offshore oil and gas platforms [26] or seawater desalination plants [27], among others. WECs are mechanical devices that convert kinetic energy into electrical energy through either the vertical oscillation or the linear motion of waves.…”