From TPL assessment to design optimization: Wave energy converter control co-design applied to the RM3
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
The Reference Model (RM) project developed six marine energy converter concepts using a sequential design methodology, which, while widely adopted in the industry, often overlooks interactions between system components, resulting in suboptimal designs. One such example is the Reference Model 3 (RM3), a two-body point absorber wave energy converter (WEC). An assessment using the Technology Performance Level (TPL) revealed that RM3’s low power-to-cost ratio, partly due to expensive steel construction, limits its techno-economic performance. Here, this study aims to redesign RM3 by reducing its scale and employing control co-design to integrate WEC and Power Take-Off (PTO) dynamics, constraints, and cost considerations within an optimization framework. We demonstrate the limitations of RM3’s current PTO design and explore the benefits of scaling down to enhance techno-economic viability by lowering material costs. Using WecOptTool, we conduct a parameter sweep over gear ratios and spring stiffnesses for various Commercial Off-The-Shelf generators in irregular wave conditions. Our findings emphasize the importance of aligning PTO components with WEC dynamics, showing that control co-design and strategic scaling can improve RM3’s power-to-cost ratio. This study presents a transferable example of applied control co-design for other WECs, supporting early-stage developers in their design decisions.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0003525; AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 2586209
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 2525868
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--2025-07294J; 1749312
- Journal Information:
- Renewable Energy, Journal Name: Renewable Energy Vol. 241; ISSN 0960-1481
- Publisher:
- Elsevier BVCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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