Mechanical interactions modeling of inertial wave energy converters

Numerous technological solutions for wave energy converters (WECs), referred as inertial reaction mass (IRM) systems, incorporate a reacting mass within the floater, coupled with a power take-off (PTO) system, to shelter all electronic components from the hostile sea environment. While the overall complexity of the system increases, the current modeling procedures persist in considering only a limited number of modes of motion, neglecting relevant dynamical effects. In this context, this paper proposes a systematic procedure for defining the kinematic characteristics and overall analytical model for the dynamics of IRM WECs. The significance of the proposed procedure lies in the statement of the reaction mass-related dynamic equation, considering the floater’s parametric excitation in six degrees of freedom (DoF). Additionally, it introduces the procedure for defining the reaction forces that the inertial mass exerts on the floater, which are often neglected in the literature for the full simulation of such systems. Furthermore, the proposed analytical modeling procedure allows the definition of approximated models in more simplified nonlinear forms for dynamic analysis and ultimately in fully linear approximations. This enables the application of methodologies and techniques commonly used in the literature for linear systems. The development of the framework is kept generic, in order to introduce a versatile mathematical procedure, that can be easily adjusted, with minor modifications, to accurately capture and represent the mechanical interaction for a wide family of IRM WEC devices. Subsequently, a case study on a vertical-hinged pendulum WEC is analyzed, to showcase the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Moreover, to test the reliability of the analytical framework, a comparison with the output of a commercial software is conducted.