Performance of an Array of Oblate Spheroidal Heaving Wave Energy Converters in Front of a Wall
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University Campus, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
2
School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou Ave., Zografos Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Water 2020, 12(1), 188; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010188
Received: 8 December 2019 / Revised: 3 January 2020 / Accepted: 7 January 2020 / Published: 9 January 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical and Experimental Modelling of Wave Field Variations around Arrays of Wave Energy Converters)
In this paper, we investigate the performance of a linear array of five semi-immersed, oblate spheroidal heaving Wave Energy Converters (WECs) in front of a bottom-mounted, finite-length, vertical wall under perpendicular to the wall regular waves. The diffraction and radiation problems are solved in the frequency domain by utilizing the conventional boundary integral equation method. Initially, to demonstrate the enhanced absorption ability of this array, we compare results with the ones corresponding to arrays of cylindrical and hemisphere-shaped WECs. Next, we investigate the effect of the array’s distance from the wall and of the length of the wall on the physical quantities describing the array’s performance. The results illustrate that the array’s placement at successively larger distances from the wall, up to three times the WECs’ radius, induces hydrodynamic interactions that improve the array’s hydrodynamic behavior, and thus its power absorption ability. An increase in the length of the wall does not lead to any significant power absorption improvement. Compared to the isolated array, the presence of the wall affects positively the array’s power absorption ability at specific frequency ranges, depending mainly on the array’s distance from the wall. Finally, characteristic diffracted wave field patterns are presented to interpret physically the occurrence of the local minima of the heave exciting forces.
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Keywords:
wave energy converters; arrays; vertical wall; oblate spheroids; hydrodynamic interactions; power absorption
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MDPI and ACS Style
Loukogeorgaki, E.; Boufidi, I.; Chatjigeorgiou, I.K. Performance of an Array of Oblate Spheroidal Heaving Wave Energy Converters in Front of a Wall. Water 2020, 12, 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010188
AMA Style
Loukogeorgaki E, Boufidi I, Chatjigeorgiou IK. Performance of an Array of Oblate Spheroidal Heaving Wave Energy Converters in Front of a Wall. Water. 2020; 12(1):188. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010188
Chicago/Turabian StyleLoukogeorgaki, Eva; Boufidi, Ifigeneia; Chatjigeorgiou, Ioannis K. 2020. "Performance of an Array of Oblate Spheroidal Heaving Wave Energy Converters in Front of a Wall" Water 12, no. 1: 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010188
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