Hydrodynamic Response and Power Performance of A Heave and Pitch Buoy Wave Energy Converter Under Bimodal Ochi-Hubble Wave Spectrum

In coastal sea areas with the bimodal Ochi-Hubble wave spectrum, such as parts of the China Sea and Indian Ocean, wave energy is the superposition of wind wave and swell. Traditional heaving buoy wave energy converters developed with narrowband wave spectrums suffer from big energy loss in these areas, leading to lower power absorption efficiency and higher generating costs. In contrast, multi-freedom buoy has different resonant frequencies and maximal power capture wave frequencies in different degrees of freedom (DOFs). Therefore, this study proposed using two DOFs to capture the energy of wind wave and swell correspondingly. A heave and pitch buoy model was established by potential flow theory and validated by experimental data. Coupling effect on the motion and power absorption, power capture frequency distribution and power absorption with different linear power takeoff system damping coefficients were analyzed to reveal the hydrodynamic response and the power performance of the two DOFs. The results indicate that by using heave and pitch DOFs, the wave energy components of wind wave and swell were captured in a targeted manner. It demonstrates that the 2-DOF buoy is an effective tool to avoid the energy loss and realize the efficient power absorption in coastal sea areas with bimodal Ochi-Hubble waves.