Overall-efficiency optimisation in OWC devices

Abstract

It is shown that due to power take-off losses, optimal control provides maximum energy absorption, but not maximum energy production. A new reactive control criterion in the frequency-domain is deduced assuming constant power take-off efficiency, respectively, in the power feeding and power absorption parts of the wave cycle. If applied in the time-domain, this criterion requires the incident wave to be predicted some time into the future. Whilst the OWC type of Wave Energy Converters (WEC) is presented in the paper, the extension to WECs of the floating body type is also considered. Illustrative numerical results for a two-dimensional OWC of simple geometry are presented, which include the performance of this device in three wave spectra with increasing demands of active control for improved energy production. Linear hydrodynamic theory is considered throughout the paper.