Weakly nonlinear theory for oscillating wave surge converters in a channel

S. Michele*, P. Sammarco, M. D'Errico

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present a weakly nonlinear theory on the natural modes' resonance of an array of oscillating wave surge converters (OWSCs) in a channel. We first derive the evolution equation of the Stuart-Landau type for the gate oscillations in uniform and modulated incident waves and then evaluate the nonlinear effects on the energy conversion performance of the array. We show that the gates are unstable to side-band perturbations so that a Benjamin-Feir instability similar to the case of Stokes' waves is possible. The non-autonomous dynamical system presents period doubling bifurcations and strange attractors. We also analyse the competition of two natural modes excited by one incident wave. For weak damping and power take-off coefficient, the dynamical effects on the generated power of the OWSCs are investigated. We show that the occurrence of subharmonic resonance significantly increases energy production.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)55-91
Number of pages37
JournalJournal of Fluid Mechanics
Volume834
Early online date17 Nov 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Jan 2018

Keywords

  • general fluid mechanics
  • nonlinear dynamical systems
  • wave-structure interactions

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