Effect of Spatial and Temporal Resolution Data on Design and Power Capture of a Heaving Point Absorber

Abstract

For a heaving point absorber to perform optimally, it has to be designed to resonate to the prevailing ocean wave period. Hence, it is important to make the ocean wave data analysis to be as accurate as possible. In this study, existing wave condition data is used to investigate the effect of the temporal resolution (daily vs. hourly) of wave data on the design of the device and power capture. The temporal resolution effect on the estimation of ocean wave resource theoretical potential is also investigated. Results show that the temporal resolution variation of the ocean wave data affects the design of the device and its power capture, but the theoretical power resource assessment is not significantly affected. The device designed for the Gulf of Mexico is also analyzed with wave condition in Oregon, which has about 40 times the wave resource theoretical potential compared to the Gulf of Mexico. The results confirmed that a device should be designed for a specific location as the device performed better in the Gulf of Mexico, which has much less ocean wave resource theoretical potential. At last, the effect of the design, diameter and season (summer and winter) on the power output of the device is also investigated using statistical hypothesis testing methods. The results show that the power capture of a device is significantly affected by these parameters.