Comparison and Validation of Hydrodynamic Theories for Wave Energy Converter Modelling

Abstract

Dynamic Wave Energy Converter (WEC) models utilize a wide variety of fundamental hydrodynamic theories. When incorporating novel hydrodynamic theories into numerical models, there are distinct impacts on WEC rigid body motions, cable dynamics, and final power production. This paper focuses on developing an understanding of the influence several refined hydrodynamic theories have on WEC dynamics, including weakly nonlinear Froude-Krylov and hydrostatic forces, body-to-body interactions, and dynamic cable modelling. All theories have evolved from simpler approaches and are of importance to a wide array of WEC archetypes. This study quantifies the impact these theories have on modelling accuracy through a WEC case study. Theoretical differences are first explored in a regular sea state. Subsequently, numerical validation efforts are performed against field data following wave reconstruction techniques. Comparisons of significance are WEC motion and cable tension. It is shown that weakly nonlinear Froude-Krylov and hydrostatic force calculations and dynamic cable modelling both significantly improve simulated WEC dynamics. However, body-to-body interactions are not found to impact simulated WEC dynamics.

Review on Fixed and Floating Offshore Structures. Part II: Sustainable Design Approaches and Project Management

“…Due to time restrictions, some design, engineering, material/equipment supply, and steel structure manufacturing processes are typically carried out concurrently. However, it should be noted that some studies have looked at different software packages used by comparing, applying and validating them, using designs for marine risers, FOWT and WEC [91,[260][261][262][263][264][265][266][267][268][269][270][271]. These studies have been validated to achieve safe, efficient, and quickly delivered engineering designs and their analysis.…”

“…However, further studies on these schemes and approaches will help to improve awareness of these offshore structures' design approaches. It is worth stating that different validations have also been conducted on both hydrodynamic, finite element analysis (FEA), and Building Information Modeling (BIM), structural design and structural integrity software to confirm their use for offshore structures [260][261][262][263][264][265][266][267][268][269][270][271].…”