Wave Energy Production by a Flexible Floating Breakwater

摘要

In this paper, a numerical procedure is developed to describe thernbehavior of a Flexible Floating Breakwater (FFB) which represents notrnonly a structure for shore protection but also a device for wave energyrnproduction with the utilization of a linear hydraulic power take-offrn(PTO) mechanism. The FFB consists of a grid of floating modulesrnconnected flexibly in two directions by: (a) connectors with knownrnproperties and (b) hydraulic power take-off mechanisms with knownrndamping characteristics. The objective is to perform a linearrnhydroelastic analysis in frequency domain with a radiation/diffractionrn3D hydrodynamic model considering the effect of the flexibility of thernFFB as well as the damping associated with the energy extraction byrnthe PTO. Sets of curves provide the effectiveness for both wave energyrnproduction and protection under the action of normal and obliquernwaves.