Optimization of wave energy converter arrays: Assessing climate change and fatigue effects

The deployment of wave energy converters (WECs) in arrays (or wave farms) presents significant potential for extracting energy from the oceans. However, factors like climate change and deterioration (e.g., due to fatigue) may have significant impact on the design and performances of wave farms. In this study, a comparative analysis is conducted for several sites along the coastal regions of the United States to elucidate the impact of evolving wave characteristics over the next century and fatigue damage accumulation on the performance of WEC arrays. A heuristic optimization framework is proposed to maximize the expected power generation while taking into consideration failure due to fatigue damage accumulation over time. To efficiently evaluate the expected power generation for different layout designs under different wave climate, an efficient stochastic simulation approach is proposed to propagate the uncertainties in wave characteristics. Extensive analyses were carried out under historical wave data and under two climate change scenarios, namely Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5, and under scenarios with and without consideration of fatigue. The impacts of climate change and fatigue on the optimal array layout and long-term power generation are investigated.