Johnson, Westin

Wave energy converters (WECs) are marine renewable energy devices designed to harness the potential and kinetic energy present in waves and convert it into electrical energy. This energy can then be stored or directed to power coastal cities or offshore installations. This thesis discusses a small-scale (~2m diameter) wave energy converter developed to gather open-water performance data for validating the numerical simulation of a 4-body oscillating body type WEC design. This WEC underwent numerical simulation using both WEC-Sim and ProteusDS, and these results were subsequently compared to the in-water testing data to validate the accuracy of the simulation. This research was conducted as part of the REU program in Marine Renewable Energy at FAU.