Optimization of a Numerical Wave Tank and Its Application to a Wave Energy Converter Platform Response Test

Abstract A full-featured wave tank was set up to evaluate a wave energy converter-bearing platform. A two-layer overset mesh was implemented to solve the complex two-body floating structure hydrodynamic problem. One validation case was conducted to verify the reliability of the wave tank and the box-shape structure excited by regular waves, which showed good consistency through experimental results. A wavelength-based parameterized mesh size and time-step setting method and a computing cost indicator were presented. A set of parameters generating regular waves with less than 1% errors was found. A complex-shaped, novel concept, wave energy converter was assessed in the wave tank. A series of regular wave tests was conducted to observe the frequency domain response of the wave energy converter platform and to reproduce the vortex shedding at the edges of the plate. The mooring cases were compared with the width experiment results, and the response amplitude operators of heave and pitch of the platform were obtained.