Assessment of interaction effects between wave energy converters
Ladda ner
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Mobility engineering (MPMOB), MSc
Publicerad
2023
Författare
Sakleshpur Lokesh Gowda, Uday Rajdeep
Khedkar, Hrishikesh Nitin
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Wave energy is one of the abundant renewable energy sources in nature. The
technology to harness wave energy is at technology readiness level TRL 7-8 (stage 4),
i.e., single full-scale prototypes have been tested at sea according to the development
steps defined by the European Marine Energy Centre. The next development goal is the
wave park, in other words an array of wave energy converters (WECs). This thesis
focuses on C4, the heaving point absorber WEC developed with the specifications from
CorPower Ocean, and how it should be arranged in wave parks to maximize the
harnessing of wave energy.
While it is important to improve the efficiency of the WEC, such a system is better
utilized in groups forming an array of WECs, hence it is important to study the
behaviour of such an array. One of the key challenges in modelling a WEC array (a.k.a.
wave park) is the interaction effects between the WECs. Studies have shown that
interaction effects between WECs are important to optimize the power output of the
wave park. The aim of this thesis is to model two different WEC arrays of 16 WECs,
grouped as 4x4 and 8x2 WECs, and study the interaction effects for different
environmental conditions. The study investigates the characteristics of the two arrays
by varying the distance between the WECs, the variation of the damping coefficient of
the power take off (PTO) system for different environmental conditions.
A coupled hydrodynamic and structural response analysis is carried out using the DNV
software SESAM. The power absorbed for all simulated conditions are evaluated and
a methodology is proposed for the preliminary design analysis of wave parks.
From this study, it is concluded that the interaction effects play a significant role in the
performance of the WECs. The power produced from wave parks depends on several
factors and they must be systematically included in preliminary design studies. The
optimization of the WEC array also depends on limiting the parameters to installation
location. The methodology used in this study proved to be a good tool that incorporated
both interaction effects and the design parameters. Examining these behaviours is
crucial to unlocking and optimizing the full potential of wave parks.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
array , heaving point absorber , power absorption , wave energy converter , wave energy parks , wave interaction effects