Investigation of tension leg effects on the dynamic response of point absorber wave energy converter

Environmental concerns have increased the interest to renewable energy technologies. Theoretical Studies on the point absorber theory of ocean wave energy started about four decades ago and less than two decades, the studies are focused on the designing of the point absorber wave energy converters.
Today, researches are in the optimization and modification of existing methods, the innovation of new approaches and the forecast of the efficiency of the point absorber converters.
In this paper, the effects of tension leg system on the hydrodynamic performance of a two-body floating-point absorber wave energy system are studied. In modeling, the two-body converter consists of: the immersed body and buoy, which are connected through a linear mass–spring system to represent the power take-off (PTO) mechanism. The hydrodynamic analysis is performed in the time domain. The results show the positive effects of tension leg anchor on the increase of relative motion between the immersed body and buoy and the increase of converter efficiency up to 6.2 percent.