Abstract
This study presents numerical modelling of a WEC (wave energy converter) along with some details of the experimental setup. Issues related to the numerical modelling of the single DOF (degree-of-freedom) motion of a surging point absorber WEC are outlined and a comparison with experimental data is presented. A commercial CFD code Flow-3D is used for numerical modelling and the ability of the code to simulate free surface linear waves and wave structure interaction is evaluated.
The work is aimed at simulating a surging wave energy converter to achieve an optimized shape and to predict output power at a higher or full scale. The findings of this study may also serve as a reference point for the use of a commercial code such as Flow-3D for the simulation of such problems.