A new MOX Report entitled “Modeling and optimization for arrays of water turbine OWC devices” by Gambarini, M.; Agate, G.; Ciaramella, G.; Miglio, E.; Maran, S. has appeared in the MOX Report Collection. Check it out here: https://www.mate.polimi.it/biblioteca/add/qmox/31-2024.pdf Abstract: The large-scale implementation of wave energy conversion requires the installation of parks of devices. We study the problem of optimizing park layout and control for wave energy converters of the oscillating water column type. As a test case, we consider a device with a Wells turbine working in water. First, a novel model based on a nonlinear ordinary differential equation is derived to describe the behavior of the water column and used to estimate the power matrix. Then, its linearization is derived in order to enable the fast simulation of large parks of devices. The choice of the hydrodynamic model allows obtaining the gradient of the power with respect to the positions through an adjoint approach, making it especially convenient for optimization. We consider in particular the case of interaction with the piles of a floating wind energy plant. The results from the developed computational framework allow us to draw interesting conclusions about park layout design. In particular, we observe that mutual interaction effects can be significant even in parks made up of devices of small size, and that wave reflection from the piles of an offshore structure can improve energy production.
