This TEAMER award was used to develop a numerical model of the Waveberg floating attenuator WEC using WEC-Sim. The Waveberg is designed to generate power in the smaller waves (for wave heights of 1–2 meters) predominant in the world. It is simple and inexpensive, therefore applicable in low-resource settings. A previous TEAMER award was used to complete wave tank testing on the Waveberg WEC. Analysis of these tests on a new 1:25 scale model supports a valuable understanding of Waveberg’s dynamics in real wave conditions. The tank testing included an initial characterization of dynamics using free decay and response amplitude operate (RAO) tests. More advanced testing was also carried out to characterize power output and test novel improvements including hydrofoils to increase lift. The tank test results provided validation data for the WEC-Sim numerical model developed in this TEAMER award.

This project was supported during RFTS 9.