Abstract
Multi-body wave energy converters often rely on “heave plates” to generate the reaction forces required for energy harvesting. However, the influence of three dimensional heave plate topology on these reaction forces is relatively unexplored in the literature. Using laboratory experiments, we investigate the reaction forces generated by three distinct heave plate topologies: a flat hexagonal plate, an open hexagonal-conic, and an enclosed hexagonalconic (i.e., interior cavity flooded with water). Though the flat plate is the least massive of the topologies, it generates the greatest total reaction force for nearly all experimental cases due to higher fluid force. Our results also demonstrate that the flat plate generally experiences the greatest force variability between the three topologies, especially during relatively large oscillations (KC greater than 2). Globally, force variability increases with the Keulegan Carpenter (KC) number. These results highlight the importance of heave plate topology on multi-body point wave energy converter performance.