Heaving wave energy converter-type attachments to a pontoon-type very large floating structure

摘要

This study proposes heaving wave energy converter (WEC) - type attachments to a pontoon -type very large floating structure (VLFS) for extracting wave energy and reducing the hydroelastic response of the VLFS. Each heaving WEC-type attachment consists of a linear Power Take -Off (PTO) system connected to VLFS at one end and to the seabed at the other end. The performance of heaving WEC-type attachments is investigated with respect to PTO damping coefficient and stiffness, locations and the number of PTO systems, VLFS flexural ri- gidity, VLFS module connection design, wave period and incident wave angle. For the fluid-structure interaction analysis, the Mindlin plate theory is adopted for modelling VLFS, while the linear wave theory is adopted for modelling fluid motions. The hybrid finite element - higher order boundary element method (FE-HOBEM) is employed to solve the fluid-structure interaction problem. It is found that, for long waves and large oblique waves, the present WEC-VLFS system outperforms the previously proposed WEC-VLFS systems in terms of the power produced.