Development of a Three-Dimensional Fully Nonlinear Potential Numerical Wave Tank for a Heaving Buoy Wave Energy Converter

The hydrodynamic performance of a vertical cylindrical heaving buoy-type floating wave energy converter under large-amplitude wave conditions was calculated. For this study, a three-dimensional fully nonlinear potential-flow numerical wave tank (3D-FN-PNWT) was developed. The 3D-FN-PNWT was based on the boundary element method with Rankine panels. Using the mixed Eulerian–Lagrangian (MEL) method for water particle movement, nonlinear waves were produced in the PNWT. The PNWT can calculate the wave forces acting on the buoy accurately using an acceleration potential approach. The constant panels and least-square gradient reconstruction method were applied to regridding of computational boundaries. An artificial damping zone was employed to satisfy the open-sea conditions at the end free surface boundaries. The diffraction and radiation problems were solved, and their solutions were confirmed by a comparison with previous studies. The interaction of the incident wave, floating body, and power take-off (PTO) behavior was examined in the time domain using the developed 3D-FN-PNWT. From comparison, the difference between the conventional linear analysis and the nonlinear analysis in large-amplitude waves was examined.