Simplified BEM-based mathematical model for bottom-hinged oscillating wave surge converters under large-amplitude regular waves

Abstract

The linear relationship between wave amplitude and wave torque based on the boundary element method (BEM) is widely employed for small-amplitude waves. However, linear relationships are unsuitable for bottom-hinged oscillating wave surge converters (OWSCs) under high waves owing to nonlinearities, such as wave overtopping. This paper presents an improved BEM introducing an incident wave amplitude correcting factor to simplify the complex nonlinearities under high regular waves. The correcting factors were calibrated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using OpenFOAM. An Oyster 800-like OWSC was adopted as the study model. A quadratic fitting curve of correcting factor vs. wave height is applicable because the calibrated correcting factors significantly correlate with wave heights but are almost irrelevant to wave periods. Though the time–history responses differ in BEM and CFD under high waves, BEM-based time-averaged results show good accuracy and high computational efficiency, such as equivalent pitch amplitude and capture width ratio (CWR). At mid-low periods, simultaneously varying power take-off (PTO) stiffness and damping than solely varying PTO damping, significantly increases CWR, especially under low waves. The capturing power under high waves substantially increases because of pitch motion amplification. At long periods, adjusting PTO inertia produces negligible efficiency improvement even with amplified oscillation.