Power Performance of the Combined Monopile Wind Turbine and Floating Buoy with Heave-Type Wave Energy Converter

Abstract

This study deals with a new concept of near-shore combined renewable energy system which integrates a monopile wind turbine and a floating buoy with heave-Type wave energy converter( WEC). Wave energy is absorbed by power-Take-off (PTO) systems. Four different shapes of buoy model are selected for this study. Power performance in regular waves is calculated by using boundary element method in ANSYS-AQWA software in both time and frequency domains. This software is based on three-dimensional radiation/diffraction theory and Morison's equation using mixture of panels and Morison elements for determining hydrodynamic loads. For validation of the approach the numerical results of the main dynamic responses of WEC in regular wave are compared with the available experimental data. The effects of the heaving buoy geometry on the main dynamic responses such as added mass, damping coefficient, heave motion, PTO damping force and mean power of various model shapes of WEC in regular waves with different periods, are compared and discussed. Comparison of the results showed that using WECs with a curvature inward in the bottom would absorb more energy from sea waves.