Hydrodynamic modelling of a multi-body wave energy converter using the Moving Frame Method

Significant wave energy conversion may be achieved with multiple floats with several modes of motion combining constructively to generate power. With the M4 system, power take off is at hinges to absorb resulting pitch motions. Complexity increases with number of floats and conventional vectorial multi-body dynamics may be conveniently replaced by the recently formulated moving frame method based on the calculus of variations to avoid free-body diagrams and joint reaction forces. Furthermore by utilising group theory to gather spatial rotations and angular velocities in a common structure, the obtained notation is general and straight-forward to apply for single and multi-body systems. This paper lays the foundations for incorporating hydrodynamic forces into the moving frame method. The method is applied to 3, 6 and 8 float cases in regular and irregular waves with results compared to the vectorial method and experimental measurements, showing close agreement. It is suggested that this is a more natural and general approach for complex multi-body, multi-hinge hydrodynamics systems.     

Design and model test of a soft-connected lattice-structured floating solar photovoltaic concept for harsh offshore conditions

Various types of floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) devices have been previously proposed, designed and constructed with applications primarily limited to onshore water bodies or near-shore regions with benign environmental conditions. This paper proposes a novel FPV concept which can survive harsh environmental conditions with extreme wave heights above 10 m. This concept uses standardised lightweight semi-submersible floats made of circular materials as individual modules. The floating modules are soft connected with ropes to form an FPV array. We first present the conceptual design of the floats and the connection systems, including hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, and structural assessments of the floats. To verify the motion response performance, we carried out 1:60 scaled model tests for a 2 by 3 array under regular and irregular wave conditions. From the time series and response spectra, the motion characteristics of the array and the mooring responses are analysed in detail. The proposed concept exhibits excellent performances in terms of modular motions with limited wave overtopping and no contact is observed between adjacent modules under the extreme wave conditions. The findings of this study can serve as a valuable reference to developing reliable and cost-effective FPV technologies for offshore conditions.