Abstract
In many wave energy concepts, power output in the MW range requires the simultaneous operation of many wave energy converters. In particular, this is true for small point-absorbers, where a wave energy farm may contain several hundred devices. The total performance of the farm is affected by the hydrodynamic interactions between the individual devices, and reliable tools that can model full farms are needed to study power output and find optimal design parameters. This paper presents a novel method to model the hydrodynamic interactions and power output of very large wave energy farms. The method is based on analytical multiple scattering theory and uses time series of irregular wave amplitudes to compute the instantaneous power of each device. An interaction distance cut-off is introduced to improve the computational cost with acceptable accuracy. As an application of the method, wave energy farms with over 100 devices are studied in the MW range using one month of wave data measured at an off-shore site.
Highlights
Several wave energy concepts around the world are currently being deployed, as well as grid-connecting full-scale wave energy converters (WECs)
This paper presents an analytical method for the modeling of large wave energy farms by using an interaction distance cut-off, which makes it possible to determine a range for which the hydrodynamical interactions in a farm should be accounted
To evaluate the method of interaction distance cut-off in multiple scattering, in Section 3.1, we compare the results with the software WAMIT
Summary
Several wave energy concepts around the world are currently being deployed, as well as grid-connecting full-scale wave energy converters (WECs). To produce a power of more than a few MW and to enable an even power distribution, most wave energy concepts necessarily include arrays of many absorbing units. This is true for point-absorber WECs, where buoys, small in relation to the wave length, are forced to oscillate by the surface waves. This paper concerns large farms of point-absorbing WECs. The individual devices in a farm are not independent, but will interact with scattered and radiated waves. The individual devices in a farm are not independent, but will interact with scattered and radiated waves This affects the full performance of the farm to a great extent, but may influence the surrounding coastal or ocean area by the modified wave field [4]
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