Performance Analysis of Different Layouts of 3-DoF WECs Around an Offshore Platform

Over the last few decades, there has been a growing interest in the exploitation and utilization of wave energy, and scholars from various countries have gradually focused on analyzing the composition of multiple wave energy converters arrays to utilize wave energy in an efficient, stable and sustainable manner. This paper proposes a new layout method of 3-DoF WECs (3-Degree-of-Freedom Wave Energy Converters) with an offshore platform, establishes the frequency-domain model of 3-DoF WECs, and then expresses the interaction effect between multiple WECs in polar coordinates. On this basis, the performance of 3-DoF WEC arrays with different center platform shapes, platform diameters, WEC distances, and incident wave directions is analyzed, and the influence of WEC distances and center platform parameters on the performance of 3-DoF WEC arrays is revealed. The results demonstrate that the central platform improves the performance of the WEC array significantly and that the WEC distance and platform diameter are critical parameters impacting WEC array performance. The performance of the WEC array with the optimal layout is 31% higher than that of the worst layout.