Comparative Analysis of Oscillating Wave Energy Converter Performance in Southern Coast of the Caspian Sea

TL;DR

This study evaluates the performance of oscillating wave energy converters in the Caspian Sea, identifying optimal locations and design parameters, and demonstrating a 63% productivity increase at the best site.

Contribution

It introduces a combined simulation approach using ABAQUS and WEC-Sim to optimize wave energy converter design and site selection in the Caspian Sea.

Findings

Nowshahr port has the highest wave energy potential.

Converter productivity increased by 63% with optimized design.

Optimal flap width is between 18 and 23 meters.

Abstract

The importance of renewable energy supplies, particularly ocean wave energy, has become undeniable globally in the last two decades. Iran is not an exception due to the long barrier with deep water in the north and south of the country. Because of this potential, the first step is chosen in order to locate a suitable site for installing wave energy converters (WECs). The next step is an applicable design for converters based on conditional and geometrical parameters. In this study, locations with maximum potential are chosen, and conditional parameters are used as input data to design the oscillating converter geometrically. Next, geometric parameters are simulated by the ABAQUS program, and for verifying it, three case study sites in the Caspian sea are considered and designed in the WEC-Sim module in MATLAB to evaluate conditional and geometrical parameters simultaneously. Finally, both results are compared with each other. It is found that the Nowshahr port has more potential than Anzali and Amirabad port, and after considering the proposed design, the converter's productivity raised by 63 percent. It is also written that the flap's optimal width is recommended to be between 18 and 23 meters. Moreover, changes in damping incident forces have a direct relationship with the system's efficiency, and the value of this force is more on Nowshahr in pitch degree of freedom. Finally, according to the software outputs, it can be concluded that the force applied to the power take-off system behind the converter flap, which is the most crucial force in evaluating the performance of the converter as the leading indicator, is derived and compared between studied sites.