Performance investigation on the different wave energy converters layouts in real wave scenarios

TL;DR

This study evaluates how different arrangements and distances among wave energy converters affect power output in real wave scenarios, highlighting the importance of layout design for optimizing wave energy harvesting.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of WEC array layouts using a frequency-domain model and grid search optimization in real wave conditions, which is novel in layout performance assessment.

Findings

Optimal WEC spacing increases with more buoys.

Layout angle significantly impacts power output.

Maximum power achieved with 5 buoys at 185 m spacing in Tasmania scenario.

Abstract

Wave energy is a broadly accessible renewable energy source, but principally it is not unexploited still and fully developed. Wave energy technologies need more investigations to reach commercial developments. In this paper, an array of interacting wave energy converters (WECs) with various arrangements and layout size is considered. The WEC model is a symmetrical, spherical and fully submerged buoy with three tethers. A frequency-domain model is derived by using linear potential theory. Numerical simulations and parametric examinations are designed in order to evaluate the distance influence among buoys with a pre-defined arrangement on the total power output of the array, based on the irregular wave models. With regard to validating the best-found layout, we perform a landscape analysis experiment using a grid search technique. These experiments are evaluated in four real wave scenarios from south of Australia. Experiments show that the distance between WECs and also the relative angle of the layout to significant wave direction plays a pivotal role to harness more power from the incident waves. Furthermore, we observe that increasing the number of WEC in the layout leads to a rise in the optimal distance among WECs. The maximum power of an array produced by a 5 buoy layout arrangement with 185 $m$ distance among buoys in the Tasmania wave scenario with a relative angle of 63 degrees to the significant in-site wave direction.