Experimental Validation of a Wave Energy Converter Array Hydrodynamics Tool

Ruiz, Pau Mercadé; Ferri, Francesco; Kofoed, Jens Peter

doi:10.3390/su9010115

Cited by 29 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Real-time simulation was carried out by Balitsky et al (2014) to model the optimal configuration for a six-body array using measured wave data from the west coast of Ireland. Control models have been introduced both in experiments and numerical modeling of arrays Li and Belmont, 2014;Mercadé Ruiz et al, 2017;Nader et al, 2017;Thomas et al, 2018a), but it is beyond the scope of the current paper to go into the details of advanced generator simulations or wave-to-wire models. Instead, we refer to reviews such as Penalba and Ringwood (2016) and Wang et al (2018) and focus on the most commonly used PTO models used in wave energy park optimization.…”

Section: Motion and Pto Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Left) Wave tank experiments with a park of 25 heaving buoys in irregular waves conducted at the DHI Shallow Water Basin, Denmark(Stratigaki et al, 2014). (Right) Experimental setup of five WaveStar models connected to linear control PTO systems(Mercadé Ruiz et al, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Predicted and measured capture factor for the power absorption of an array of five WaveStar models at a scale of 1:20 in irregular waves(Mercadé Ruiz et al, 2017); seeFigure 2for the experimental set-up.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Advances and Challenges in Wave Energy Park Optimization—A Review

et al. 2020

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A commercial wave energy system will typically consist of many interacting wave energy converters installed in a park. The performance of the park depends on many parameters such as array layout and number of devices, and may be evaluated based on different measures such as energy absorption, electricity quality, or cost of the produced electricity. As wave energy is currently at the stage where several large-scale installations are being planned, optimizing the park performance is an active research area, with many important contributions in the past few years. Here, this research is reviewed, with a focus on identifying the current state of the art, analyzing how realistic, reliable, and relevant the methods and the results are, and outlining directions for future research.

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Section: Motion and Pto Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Advances and Challenges in Wave Energy Park Optimization—A Review

et al. 2020

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“…In this paper, arrays of N = 9 and distances between WECs of W = 2D, 4D and 6D were defined, according to previous works (Bozzi et al, 2017;Mercadé Ruiz et al, 2017). Furthermore, three different shapes of WEC arrays were considered ( Fig.…”

Section: Wec Arraysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an optimum design of wave energy converter arrays through an integrated approach of life cycle performance and operational capacity

et al. 2018

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Over the last decades, several efforts have been made to develop an alternative and sustainable energy source from wind waves. To achieve the financial sustainability of this technology, most of the research has focused on analyzing facilities composed by several wave energy converters (WECs) arrays instead of isolated ones. Although the interaction between devices and its implications on the performance of the facilities have been studied beforehand, these previous works only considered certain combinations of sea states, limiting the applicability of the results. This work applies a new methodology based on statistical methods to assess the performance of different WEC array distributions during their entire life-cycle in an efficient way, using downscaling techniques and advanced numerical modeling for the propagation of the wave climate. The results obtained during the hindcasted life-cycle are used to analyze the maintenance and operation capabilities of the different alternatives of arrays defined for the WEC facility. The interactions between devices and their efficiency considering the associated impact are also quantified. The whole process was applied to a hypothetical array location in the Gulf of Cádiz (southwestern Spain), where three different array distributions were defined. Results show that the distance between WECs is a key parameter that controls the potential energy production, the efficiency * Corresponding author alopez50@us.es Preprint submitted to Applied Energy June 7, 2017 VERSIÓN PREPRINT -Primera versiónof the facility and the interaction between several devices.

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“…Because of the variety of technical solutions and the complexity of modeling the inherently non-linear behavior of most viable PTO systems in WECs, a plurality of previous investigations has assumed a simple mechanical damper as a proxy for the PTO system. Some examples for farms of heaving cylindrical WECs are found in [1][2][3][4][5] and for Oscillating Surging Wave Energy Converters (OSWECs) in [6][7][8][9]. Concurrently, due to step improvements in hydrodynamic modelling software, there has been a jump in the number of numerical investigations that have modelled single WECs [10][11][12][13] and small farms of WECs [14,15] with fully non-linear hydrodynamics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the Near-Field Effects and the Power Production of an Array of Heaving Cylindrical WECs and OSWECs Using a Coupled Hydrodynamic-PTO Model

et al. 2018

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The Power Take-Off (PTO) system is the key component of a Wave Energy Converter (WEC) that distinguishes it from a simple floating body because the uptake of the energy by the PTO system modifies the wave field surrounding the WEC. Consequently, the choice of a proper PTO model of a WEC is a key factor in the accuracy of a numerical model that serves to validate the economic impact of a wave energy project. Simultaneously, the given numerical model needs to simulate many WEC units operating in close proximity in a WEC farm, as such conglomerations are seen by the wave energy industry as the path to economic viability. A balance must therefore be struck between an accurate PTO model and the numerical cost of running it for various WEC farm configurations to test the viability of any given WEC farm project. Because hydrodynamic interaction between the WECs in a farm modifies the incoming wave field, both the power output of a WEC farm and the surface elevations in the ‘near field’ area will be affected. For certain types of WECs, namely heaving cylindrical WECs, the PTO system strongly modifies the motion of the WECs. Consequently, the choice of a PTO system affects both the power production and the surface elevations in the ‘near field’ of a WEC farm. In this paper, we investigate the effect of a PTO system for a small wave farm that we term ‘WEC array’ of 5 WECs of two types: a heaving cylindrical WEC and an Oscillating Surge Wave Energy Converter (OSWEC). These WECs are positioned in a staggered array configuration designed to extract the maximum power from the incident waves. The PTO system is modelled in WEC-Sim, a purpose-built WEC dynamics simulator. The PTO system is coupled to the open-source wave structure interaction solver NEMOH to calculate the average wave field η in the ‘near-field’. Using a WEC-specific novel PTO system model, the effect of a hydraulic PTO system on the WEC array power production and the near-field is compared to that of a linear PTO system. Results are given for a series of regular wave conditions for a single WEC and subsequently extended to a 5-WEC array. We demonstrate the quantitative and qualitative differences in the power and the ‘near-field’ effects between a 5-heaving cylindrical WEC array and a 5-OSWEC array. Furthermore, we show that modeling a hydraulic PTO system as a linear PTO system in the case of a heaving cylindrical WEC leads to considerable inaccuracies in the calculation of average absorbed power, but not in the near-field surface elevations. Yet, in the case of an OSWEC, a hydraulic PTO system cannot be reduced to a linear PTO coefficient without introducing substantial inaccuracies into both the array power output and the near-field effects. We discuss the implications of our results compared to previous research on WEC arrays which used simplified linear coefficients as a proxy for PTO systems.

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Experimental Validation of a Wave Energy Converter Array Hydrodynamics Tool

Cited by 29 publications

References 16 publications

Advances and Challenges in Wave Energy Park Optimization—A Review

Advances and Challenges in Wave Energy Park Optimization—A Review

Towards an optimum design of wave energy converter arrays through an integrated approach of life cycle performance and operational capacity

Analyzing the Near-Field Effects and the Power Production of an Array of Heaving Cylindrical WECs and OSWECs Using a Coupled Hydrodynamic-PTO Model

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