3D SPH Simulation of Wave Interaction between Wave Energy Converters: Towards optimum wave power absorption in wave farms

Ocean waves are one of the sustainable resources of renewable energy for carbon-free electricity. For cost-effective commercial-scale projects, Wave Energy Converters (WECs) are deployed in arrays with optimum spacing as an alternative for a large (oscillatory) device in isolation. It has been found that when the wave excitation frequency is close to the resonant frequency of the WEC, the efficiency factor of energy farms, called q-factor, increases with the oscillation amplitude of the device. It has been found that the maximum absorbed energy of WECs depends directly on array configuration as that the radiated and incident wave fields interfere to direct the energy flux in the ocean towards the floating bodies. In this paper, the fully nonlinear interaction between two 3D floating bodies in close proximity and excited near its' resonance is studied using Weakly Compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (WCSPH). Apart from the calculations of q factor, hydrodynamic forces acting on the floating bodies and their dynamic responses are also calculated. An optimum array of WECs is proposed.