Numerical Investigation on Hydrodynamic Performance of a WEC Array Integrated Into a Pontoon

Abstract

High construction-cost is one of the barriers that limited the developments of wave energy utilization. Integrating wave energy converters (WECs) into other marine structures may reduce the construction cost of WECs effectively. In this paper, an integrated system with a medium array (11 devices) of cylindrical oscillating buoy (OB) -type WECs arranged at the weather side of a fixed pontoon-type breakwater is proposed. The hydrodynamics of the OB-type WECs are investigated numerically by using higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) code package (i.e., WAFDUT), which is developed based on linear potential flow theory. The effects of the compactness of the array, the distance of the array and the rear pontoon on the gain factor of the WEC system are investigated. Results show that the constructive effect can be achieved by integrating the WEC array into the fixed pontoon. The integrated system with sparser array performs better in terms of the efficiency. And the performance of the WEC array is sensitive to the distance between the array and the pontoon.