Abstract

Marine renewable energy is expected as an alternative energy source to fossil fuel. Wave energy is one kind of the marine renewable energy. The subject of this paper is an array of Point Absorber Wave Energy Converters (PA-WECs) and their motion in maximizing the power generation. The PA-WEC generates electricity by using its heaving motion. And the assumed PA-WEC has a linear PTO system in which the generator also can provide arbitrary additional force able to change the damping and the restoring effect of its motion. This means that by choosing appropriate force as a control force we can maximize the power generation of PA-WEC. One of the feature points to make an array of PA-WECs is taking positively the hydrodynamic interaction among the array like trapping waves among the array to maximize the power generation.

As for the maximization of the power generation of the array, the authors have proposed the arrangement concept of the array increasing the power generation potential and the way of the determination of the individual control force on each WEC for maximizing the power generation of the array. In the research, we also examined the sensitivity of the arrangement and control force. As a result, there is a best interval among the WECs for each number of the array of WECs and wave frequency. On the other hand, we also confirmed that the sensitivity of the arrangement is not so high around the best arrangement, when we consider the expected power generation in a certain wave spectrum. However, except for the heaving motion on WECs which directly affects the power generation the relation between the other motions and maximizing the power generation was not investigated in detail yet.

In this paper, we examine how to change the whole hydrodynamic motion which is 6 times of the number of arrayed WECs by the hydrodynamic interaction among them under controlled for maximizing the arrayed WECs power generation.

This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.