Abstract
Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, the consumption of electricity in the world is expected to increase, thus leads to the fast development of the renewable energy industry. In 2016, 24.5% of the electricity is produced by renewable energy. There are several types of renewable energy, e.g. solar, wind, and ocean wave. The ocean wave energy is identified to have the greatest potential for electricity generation. There are various types of wave energy converter (WEC) that have been designed for harnessing the wave energy, e.g. the oscillating water column, salter duck, point absorber, water dagon etc. Due to the smaller dimension, the point absorber is the most suitable WEC to be deployed in an array configuration, whereby each isolated WEC interacts and alters the vicinity of the wave formation by absorbing, radiating, and diffracting the wave. Subsequently, the wave interference will also affect the WEC’s performance. The objective of the present study is to investigate the optimum separation distance, d, that would resulting to an optimum performance between two WECs in an array configuration using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. The analysis considered an isolated WEC and two WECs, i.e. the heaving point absorbers with three point catenary mooring lines. The influence of the separation distance towards diffraction and response amplitude operator (RAO) of an array of two WECs was evaluated. The optimum production of the wave energy by the heaving point absorber is observed to be highly dependant on the relative heave motion of the two WECs [1]. In the present study, it shows that the optimum distance between two WECs in an array configuration is 20 m, whereby the maximum heave RAO were identified.
Highlights
The main energy source in Malaysia is still depending on fossil fuels even though the oil reserves have been depleted [2]
The main objective is to investigate the optimum separation distance, d, that would resulting to an optimum performance between two wave energy converter (WEC) in an array configuration using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software by considering the diffraction force and heave response amplitude operator (RAO) values
Due to its relatively smaller dimension compared with another type of WEC, this device is most suitable to be deployed in an array where each isolated WEC interacts and altering the vicinity wave formation by absorbing, radiating and diffracting the wave
Summary
The main energy source in Malaysia is still depending on fossil fuels even though the oil reserves have been depleted [2]. As for the current production rates, the global reserves of crude oil and natural gas are estimated to last for the 41.8 until 60.3 years [3]. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), by 2030, the global energy consumption will increase by 53%. It is expected that the electrical energy consumption in Malaysia will be doubled upon reaching 2020 [4]. The seeking of renewable energy has become the government’s agenda to reduce the CO2 emission
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