Prediction of the Hydrodynamic Performance of the Floating Pendulum Wave Energy Converter in Regular and Irregular Waves

摘要

In this paper, we carried out a numerical investigation of thehydrodynamic performance of a floating pendulum wave energyconverter (WEC). This movable-body-type device consists of threemain parts: floater, pendulum and damping plate. The performance ofthe WEC device was evaluated under regular and irregular waveconditions using frequency-domain floating body dynamics. In thisstudy, the higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) based onpotential flow model was applied to obtain the hydrodynamiccoefficients and wave exciting forces acting on floating bodies. Thehinged motion of the pendulum was simulated by applying the penaltymethod. In order to avoid an unrealistic resonant response, numericalbody damping was adopted. The coupled dynamics of floater andpendulum were analyzed as a hinged multi-body model. First, the waveforce and motion characteristics of the device in regular waves werestudied. Then, the performance of the WEC device was evaluated underirregular wave conditions. The effects of the main shape parameters onpower absorption and floater motion were numerically investigated.