Oscillating Wave Surge Converters: Interactions in a wave farm

The hydrodynamic behaviour of a wave farm comprising of Oscillating Wave Surge Converters (OWSC) is investigated using a mathematical model based on linear potential flow theory. The developed method can analyse a large number of wave energy converters in arbitrary configurations with oblique wave incidence and considers the hydrodynamic interactions amongst all the devices. The highly efficient novel method is based on Greens Integral Equation formulation, yielding hypersingular integrals which are finally solved using Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. Using the semi -analytical approach, some possible configurations of a wave farm are studied. In the case of an inline configuration of the OWSCs with normal wave incidence, the occurrence of a near resonant behaviour already observed for 3 flaps is confirmed. A strong wave focussing effect is observed in some special configurations comprising of a large number of such devices. In general, the flaps located on the front of the wave farm are found to exhibit an enhanced performance behaviour in average, due to the mutual interactions arising within the array. A special case of two back to back flaps, oscillating independently, is also analysed using the above approach.