Effects of narrow gap wave resonance on a dual-floater WEC-breakwater hybrid system

Hengming Zhang, Binzhen Zhou, Jun Zang, Christopher Vogel, Tianhui Fan, Chaohe Chen

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Abstract

The effects of gap wave resonance on the performance of a dual-floater hybrid system consisting of an oscillating-buoy type wave energy converter (WEC) and a floating breakwater are important for the design of such a hybrid system. This paper investigates the gap wave resonance by employing a two-dimensional numerical wave flume developed using the Star-CCM + software. The maximum wave elevation in the WEC-breakwater gap and the effects of the gap wave resonance on the performance of the dual-floater hybrid system were studied. The influence of the WEC motion and the geometrical parameters of the hybrid system on the maximum wave elevation were analyzed. The maximum gap wave elevation is essentially controlled by the vertical velocity of the free surface in the WEC-breakwater gap. The gap wave resonance was found to significantly improve the wave energy extraction performance of the hybrid system. This allowed the maximum conversion efficiency to exceed the well-known limit of 0.50 for a symmetric body in single degree-of-freedom motion. The wave resonance frequencies in the WEC-breakwater gap decreased with the increase of the gap width and the WEC draft. Due to the energy extraction of the WEC, the horizontal and vertical forces on the breakwater were reduced by up to 0.79 and 0.59, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Article number108762
JournalOcean Engineering
Volume225
Early online date10 Mar 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 52071096 , 51979111 , 52071145 ). Student Research and Innovation Fund of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities ( 3072020GIP0105 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Floating breakwater
  • Narrow gap
  • Wave attenuation
  • Wave energy converter
  • Wave energy extraction
  • Wave resonance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Ocean Engineering

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