Preliminary sizing of an oscillating surge
wave energy converter (OSWEC) is an iterative process that
relies on knowledge of the relevant hydrodynamic
coefficients for a given geometry. Often, the complex
definition of the device geometry requires coefficients to be
obtained through experiments or numerical boundary
element solvers such as WAMIT. These techniques demand
significant user and computational effort, therefore
inhibiting the fine-scale parametrization of object
dimensions. In this study, a theoretical model, originally
presented in Michele et al. (2016), is developed and
demonstrated to efficiently optimize the power production
for an OSWEC device (subjected to certain environmental
conditions) with variations in device widths, heights, and
distances from the seabed.
