Analysis of interaction effects between WECs in four types of wave farms

Paper in proceeding, 2019

The development of wave energy converters (WECs) is often carried out based on detailed analysis of a single unit. However, successful prototypes that will become commercial will be installed in wave farms where additional effects due to interactions between the WECs will occur. Such interaction effects have been studied in several investigations, but mostly using frequency-domain analyses, or time-domain analyses with a simplified model of the WEC system. The current study presents results from time-domain coupled simulations, which are used to calculate, among others, the levelised cost of energy (LCoE) and fatigue lives of moorings of the WEC system. Four types of wave arrays were compared using the same point-absorbing WEC but with different mooring designs and array patterns. The fatigue damage of the moorings was found to increase for the arrays with strong hydrodynamic interactions from the wave field and mechanical couplings in the mooring design. The results show that the LCoE value for a WEC array farm is sensitive to the hydrodynamic interaction between WECs and the mechanical couplings in the mooring design.