Structural Analysis on the Arm and Floater Structure of a Wave Energy Converter

Ocean waves have huge amounts of energy, even larger than wind or solar, which can be extracted by some mechanical device. This can be done by creating a system of reacting forces, in which two or more bodies move relative to each other, while at least one body interacts with the waves. This moves the floater up and down. The floaters are connected to an arm structure, which are mounted on a fixed hull structure. Hence, the structure of the floater is very important. A static structural analysis with FSI (Fluid-Structure Interaction) analysis is conducted. To achieve the pressure load for the FSI analysis, the floater is simulated on a wave generator using rigid body motion. The structural analysis is done to examine the stresses on the whole system, and four types of flange and floater are optimized. The result shows that the structure of floater with wood support is the safest.