Design and Motion Analysis of a Floating Water Channel Platform With Wave Energy Converters

This study performed stability and motion analysis for the basic design of a floating water channel platform (FWCP). This structure has a Y-shaped and is equipped with three wave energy converters (WECs). Such a system enhances the wave energy capture through reflection, incident wave energy collection, and fluid resonance in a closed region. The challenge is to ensure the stability and lies in accurately predicting the motion of the platform owing to fluid resonance. Thus, this study proposed four models to design a platform, and evaluated stability according to large angle through GZ curve. In addition, the motions of the platform were analyzed in the frequency domain using WAMIT and OrcaWAVE commercial codes, and compared with the model experiment results. The motion of the platform was found to be slightly overestimated at the fluid resonance frequency. Thus, further research is necessary to obtain a more accurate estimate.