Energy capture optimization of heave oscillating buoy wave energy converter based on model predictive control

Abstract

The optimal constant damping control based on the peak frequency of irregular wave is commonly adopted to improve the wave energy capture efficiency for the oscillating buoy wave energy converter (WEC) while the influence of the wave frequency change cannot be considered. In this paper, a real-time PTO force control optimization method is proposed based on model predictive control (MPC). Firstly, the dynamic model of the buoy is built based on the Cummins equation. Secondly, the additional penalty terms which may make the optimization problem convex are introduced into the original maximized energy objective, and their effects on the efficiency are investigated. Then, the deterministic sea wave prediction method is used to predict the future wave force aiming to make up the shortage that the classical MPC cannot compensate the external disturbance. Finally, the energy capture performance of MPC for the oscillating buoy WEC was compared with the resistive control. The results show that the MPC method can improve the energy capture by about 40%–60% under the irregular wave conditions.