Representing non-linear wave energy converters in coastal wave models

The two new candidate obstacle cases were compared by considering up to 5 BBDB devices subject to irregular wave conditions. For an individual device, a region of significantly perturbed wave heights, referred to as a wake, stretched 200 m in the lee of the WEC, with the maximum impact on wave heights seen 50 m behind the device. The wake behind five devices is largely dependent on the device spacing. The five unit WEC array only presented decreases of wave height between 0.2 and 0.7 m 200 m behind the last device in the array. A five unit WEC array model showed that estimates of individual WEC power performance was reduced by 2.3% and 6.0% when implementing the two new obstacle cases.