Advanced Features and Recent Developments in the WEC-Sim Open-Source Design Tool: Preprint
WEC-Sim is an open-source tool developed in Matlab/Simulink to simulate wave energy converters. WEC-Sim has been developed jointly by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) since its initial release in 2014. WEC-Sim simulations are performed in the time domain based on the radiation and diffraction method using hydrodynamics coefficients derived from boundary element method (BEM)-based frequency-domain potential flow solvers (e.g., WAMIT, NEMOH, Capytaine, or ANSYS-AQWA). Within this level of modeling fidelity, WEC-Sim can handle floating body hydrodynamics, mechanical and electrical power generation methods, advanced control implementation, mooring systems, and other unique applications such as desalination. WEC-Sim functionalities are developed using Simulink blocks and Matlab functions. WEC-Sim is capabilities include simulation of different wave conditions, constraints and PTOs, body dynamics, mooring systems, among other advanced features such as nonlinear hydrodynamics, nonlinear PTOs, body-to-body interactions, etc.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 2283516
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5700-86894; MainId:87669; UUID:bc3e867e-bb11-44ee-b8b1-b9d399ca7d27; MainAdminId:71545
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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