Abstract
WEC-Sim is an open-source tool developed in Matlab/Simulink to simulate wave energy converters (WECs). WEC-Sim has been developed jointly by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) since its initial release in 2014 [1]. WEC-Sim simulations are performed in the time domain based on the radiation and diffraction method [2] using hydrodynamics coefficients derived from boundary element method (BEM)-based frequency domain potential flow solvers (e.g., WAMIT, NEMOH, Capytaine, or ANSYS-AQWA). Within this level of modeling fidelity, WEC-Sim can handle floating body hydrodynamics [3], mechanical and electrical power generation methods, advanced control implementation [4], mooring systems, and other unique applications such as desalination [5]. WEC-Sim functionalities are developed using Simulink blocks and Matlab functions. WEC-Sim is capabilities include simulation of different wave conditions, constraints and power take-offs (PTOs), body dynamics, mooring systems, among other advanced features such as nonlinear hydrodynamics, nonlinear PTOs, body-to-body interactions, etc. WEC-Sim functionalities are listed in Table I.