A comparative study on BEM solvers for Wave Energy Converters
Vaibhav Raghavan (TU Delft - Offshore Engineering)
G. Lavidas (TU Delft - Offshore Engineering)
Andrei Metrikine (TU Delft - Offshore Engineering)
Nikolaos Mantadakis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Eva Loukogeorgaki (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
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Abstract
Wave Energy Converters (WECs) are expected to significantly contribute to the energy transition; however, this depends on their interactions with the resource. Calculating the power generated by WECs depends heavily on the accurate modelling of wave-structure interactions. The Boundary Element Method (BEM) based on the potential flow theory has yielded accurate results at low computational costs when compared to complex Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. Hydrodynamic Analysis of Marine Structures (HAMS), a recently developed open-source BEM frequency domain solver, originally was created for large marine structures. To date it has only been applied to single WECs with spherical/cylindrical geometries. HAMS offers unique advantages through its efficient removal of irregular frequencies and lower computational costs. This paper aims to compare hydrodynamic coefficients, exciting forces, Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) and computational costs between HAMS,WAMIT, and NEMOH for a cylindrical point absorber and an oscillating surge WEC, extending the currently limited WECs application in HAMS.