A Pitching WEC-Type Attachment for Extracting Wave Energy and Reducing Hydroelastic Response of VLFS

Abstract

This paper presents a pitching wave energy converter (WEC)-type attachment to the fore edge of a very large floating structure (VLFS) for reducing hydroelastic response of the VLFS and extracting wave energy. The proposed attachment consists of multiple pontoons that are connected to the VLFS with hinges and Power Take-Off (PTO) systems. The VLFS and pontoons are modelled according to the Mindlin plate theory. The linear wave theory is adopted to model the fluid motion. The analysis is carried out in the frequency domain. The Finite Element-Boundary Element (FE-BE) method is used. The effects of incident wave angle, wave period and the stiffness of PTO systems on the effectiveness of the proposed attachment are investigated.