Abstract
A novel wave energy converter (WEC) design, based on the concept of the Stewart-Gough platform (SGP) is being investigated. The main objectives of this study are to present the proposed WEC based on the SGP (WEC-SGP) and to establish the necessary equations to describe the motion of the SGP to be used as a WEC. A kinematic analysis is developed to evaluate the leg lengths required to track the planned trajectory determined by the elevation of the free surface of the sea. Furthermore, the WEC-SGP dynamical analysis as formulated by the Newton-Euler approach is solved to find the required leg forces to support the effect of the hydrodynamic forces and the force moments acting on the upper floating component. Linear wave theory is used to analyze the WEC-SGP and some of the kinematic aspects of linear waves are used as input information for the kinematic and dynamic analysis. The instantaneous and mean power provided by the WEC-PSG are calculated for regular wave conditions. The results show that the proposed WEC-SGP configuration might increase the conversion of the wave energy, since all degrees of freedom in its motion are being used, as compared with the traditional heaving point absorber WEC.