Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
300942 Renewable Energy 2012 10 Pages PDF
Abstract

Although the latching control strategy has been recognized as an important mean of increasing the efficiency of one-body point-absorbing wave energy converters (WECs), its effectiveness in two-body floating point-absorbers has been questioned in some studies. The current work investigates the increase in annual absorbed energy achieved with a simple threshold unlatching control strategy when applied to a generic two-body heaving WEC. The WEC performance is evaluated for a set of sea-states characteristic of the wave climate off the Portuguese west coast.To achieve this computationally intensive task, a new high-order numerical method for the solution of the Cummins equations is presented and used. This approach is based on a polynomial representation of the solution, whose coefficients are computed using a continuous least-squares approximation. The code has been parallelized and computations were performed at the IST cluster.

► Time-domain modelling of a two-body wave energy converter with latching control. ► Annual energy absorption maximization regarding a wave climate. ► Optimum mass ratio between the floater and the submerged body. ► New high-order numerical method for the solution of the Cummins equations. ► Continuous polynomial approximation of the solution using the least-squares method.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Energy Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
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