Manufacturability considerations in design optimisation of wave energy converters

Wave energy converter hull shapes have been optimised in the past to find the most suitable design to maximise mean annual power production and minimise costs. However, costs are generally considered through proxies based on the device's size. When using an optimisation process capable of generating very diverse shapes, more complex objective functions may be required to ensure that resulting shapes truly minimise the levelised cost of energy. For this purpose, relevant cost factors with an effect on geometry, such as manufacturability and materials considerations, should be included in the optimisation process. To address this challenge, different strategies for incorporating manufacturability considerations in a wave energy converter optimisation process with an adaptable geometry definition are discussed here. The resulting optimal shapes are compared to the shapes obtained when these additional constraints are not included. The results show that it is possible to generate wave energy converter shapes designed for a particular manufacturing process, as well as in general with improved manufacturability characteristics - based on the shapes maximum curvature. The proposed approaches can be used in future wave energy converter design studies to generate novel and improved shapes while considering their manufacturability.