Design of the wave energy converter array to achieve constructive effects

A large wave power plant consists of a series of wave energy converters (WECs). Due to the diffracted and radiated waves, the interactions among WECs will exist, which may be constructive or destructive. Here qmod(ω) and q factors are used to distinguish the interaction effects in regular and irregular waves respectively. This paper presents a study on the arrays of WECs to design the wave power plant. The WEC with three degrees of freedom (3-DOF) including the heave, pitch and roll motions is considered. The influences of the separating distances and wave directions of the triangle array are investigated reaching the conclusion that the destructive effects are dominant. When the fixed platform is placed in the center of the triangle array, the constructive effects become notable, especially in some wave directions. Subsequently, the effects influenced by the size of the platform are compared. The results show that in the specific wave direction the larger size of the platform is, the more remarkable the constructive effects are. Finally, the triangle array with a platform is considered as a system unit. To achieve better constructive effects, a topological method to design the single-row wave power plant established by system units is provided.