Peak Forces on Wave Energy Linear Generators in Tsunami and Extreme Waves

Linnea Sjökvist and Malin Göteman
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Linnea Sjökvist: Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, SE-752 21 Uppsala, Sweden
Malin Göteman: Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, SE-752 21 Uppsala, Sweden

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: The focus of this paper is the survivability of wave energy converters (WECs) in extreme waves and tsunamis, using realistic WEC parameters. The impact of a generator damping factor has been studied, and the peak forces plotted as a function of wave height. The paper shows that an increased damping decreases the force in the endstop hit, which is in agreement with earlier studies. However, when analyzing this in more detail, we can show that friction damping and velocity dependent generator damping affect the performance of the device differently, and that friction can have a latching effect on devices in tsunami waves, leading to higher peak forces. In addition, we study the impact of different line lengths, and find that longer line lengths reduce the endstop forces in extreme regular waves, but on the contrary increase the forces in tsunami waves due to the different fluid velocity fields.

Keywords: wave energy; OpenFOAM; peak forces; extreme waves; tsunami; linear damping; friction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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