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Wave energy converters (WEC) range significantly in respect of concept, technologies and design maturation, with the majority of devices at an early-commercial stage. To date, most large scale deployments have been conducted with a single WEC, however there is a necessity to expand this to ‘arrays’ or ‘farms’ in the future. With this, there are complex hydrodynamic implications which require consideration in the evolution from single device to arrays. This paper considers two main issues in array designs, the positioning and coupling effects, which can be directly related to the diffraction property of the waves and the radiation properties of WECs respectively. The work conducted comprises both theoretical and experimental modelling, the latter a novel approach utilising Australia’s most technically advanced wave basin at the Australian Maritime College. The aim is to address a critical knowledge gap: understanding the performance of ocean WEC arrays, and to develop a software tool readily usable by industry, governments and the public to accurately model the performance of arrays of WECs.

Item Type:	Refereed Conference Paper
Keywords:	wave energy converters, optimisation, numerical and experiment modelling
Research Division:	Engineering
Research Group:	Maritime engineering
Research Field:	Ocean engineering
Objective Division:	Energy
Objective Group:	Renewable energy
Objective Field:	Wave energy
UTAS Author:	Penesis, I (Professor Irene Penesis)
UTAS Author:	Nader, J-R (Dr Jean-Roch Nader)
UTAS Author:	Fleming, A (Dr Alan Fleming)
UTAS Author:	MacFarlane, G (Associate Professor Gregor MacFarlane)
ID Code:	112727
Year Published:	2016
Deposited By:	NC Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics
Deposited On:	2016-11-24
Last Modified:	2017-11-01
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