Abstract: This paper addresses the hydrodynamic analysis of two type of heaving point absorbers (HPAs) and links the system dynamic performance, based on hydrodynamic models, to wave climates. Frequencydomain models based on regular wave excitation are used for this purpose. An axisymmetric HPA is assessed on two different wave climates by using a stochastic model as surface elevation input and the power transfer functions (PTFs) of two devices. The objective is to study the influence and correlation of wave climates on the performance of wave energy converters (WECs).
Results have been presented and show the power absorption of capacity for different devices and configurations. Next, this paper gives the optimum power take-off (PTO) damping coefficient for the regular wave assumption and applies this optimum value to the devices placed in wave climates. It has been found that this value does not lead to the maximum annual energy production for irregular waves found in the climate. Higher production can be obtained by increasing the PTO damping value, so that the PTF has a larger bandwidth and captures more energy.
