Numerical and Experimental Modelling of WECs

The design of a wave energy converter relies heavily on results from numerical simulations and experiments with scale models. Such results allow not only fun-damental design changes but also the optimisation of selected configurations. For ongoing development, and particularly at an early stage, numerical models give the flexibility of assessing a large number of versions at a relatively low cost. Physical models are then tested in wave tanks to validate the numerical simula-tions and to investigate phenomena which are not evidenced by the computational packages. This chapter provides an overview on the numerical techniques that have been used to model the hydrodynamics of wave energy converters (WECs), details on wavemaker and wave tank design, guidelines on experimental tech-niques and finally a case study related to one of the most studied concepts which reached the full-scale prototype stage.

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