Modelling multiple hinged wave energy converters along a vertical sea wall

In the current study, linear frequency and time domain (Cummins) methods are developed for configuration comprising single and multiple floaters connected through a beam hinged to a vertical sea wall of infinite extent subjected to variable heading in constant depth water. Three approaches considering the vertical seawall effect are implemented in the OREGEN_BEM code. The first employs the method of body images to account for the wall reflection; the second directly modify the Green's function within the potential formulation, and the third adopts a multibody formulation in which the seawall is modelled as independent and stationary body. These approaches are applied to idealised configurations of truncated cylindrical floaters, both singly and arranged in a linear array of five floaters and validated against existing published results. Among these three approaches, the modified Green's function demonstrates superior computational efficiency and accuracy. The corresponding time domain formulation is developed to capture nonlinear effects. This is applied for the float geometries of EcoWavePower using the efficient, explicit OREGEN_X code for array comprising one, five and twenty floaters under varying wave headings and a range of spectral peak periods. The developed models facilitate optimization and control analyses and can be readily extended to incorporate additional nonlinear effects beyond viscous drag.