Abstract
How to improve the power generation of wave energy converters (WEC) has become one of the main research objectives in wave energy field. This paper illustrates a framework on the use of back propagation (BP) neural network in predicting capture power of the frustum of a cone shaped floating body. Mathematical model of single floating body is derived, and radius, semi-vertical angle, mass, submergence depth, power take-off (PTO) damping coefficient, and stiffness coefficient are identified as key variables. Commercial software ANSYS-AQWA is used for numerical simulations to obtain hydrodynamic parameters, and then capture power is calculated by these parameters. A database containing 100 samples is established by Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method, and a simple feature study is conducted. A BP neural network model with high accuracy is designed and trained for predictions based on built database. The results show that forecasting results and desired outputs are in great agreement with error percentage not greater than 4%, correlation coefficient (CC) greater than 0.9, P value close to 1, and root mean square error (RMSE) less than 139 W. The proposed method provides a guideline for designers to identify basic parameters of the floating body and system damping coefficient.