Wave-Structure Interaction Dynamics of a Point Absorber Wave Energy Converter

Abundant ocean energy can be harvested with the proper design of a wave energy converter (WEC). Such a converter called a two-body point absorber harnesses energy by a doughnut-shaped heaving buoy. The buoy gets relative motion as a spar passing through the doughnut hole does not move with waves. The relative motion is further converted to electrical energy. Here, the wave energy transfer to the buoy occurs based on the wave-structure interactions. Analysis of such interaction can give an idea about system design. In this work, the boundary element method (BEM) was used to find the interaction. In BEM, the second-order terms were computed by the full quadratic transfer matrices.