STABILITY ANALYSIS FOR TRIMARAN PONTOON ARRAY IN WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER – PENDULUM SYSTEM (WEC - PS)

Abstract

Ocean waves are a renewable energy source with abundant reserves in Indonesia. With the vast waters of Indonesia, the development of a sea wave power plant needs to be developed. This research focuses on the development of easy-operated and maintained ocean wave converter–pendulum system (OWC – PS). The numerical simulation and experimental analysis were conducted to obtain the relation between the motion response of the pontoon array and its pendulum. The pontoon used is the trimaran type, which consists of a cylindrical pontoon as the main hull and two outriggers on its side. This study analyses the most stable array arrangement that produces maximum pitching motion and pendulum deviation. The simulation results show that the largest pitching value is in array 1, i.e., 27.91° for pontoon 1 and 38.92° for pontoon 2, which results in a maximum pendulum deviation of 100 ° for pendulums 1 and 56.2 ° for pendulum 2 over a wave period of 9 seconds. The backward motion of the pendulum in both array configurations tends to have a greater deviation than that of the forward motion. The pendulums of array 1 have different motion characteristics, represented by different deviation values in both pendulums. This phenomenon does not occur in array 2, since both pendulums in array 2 have the same deviation (with only a small discrepancy).