Marcello Rava

Mr. Marcello Rava


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

5Years (2022-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
MRMarcello Rava
Marcello Rava
PDPanagiotis Dafnakis
Panagiotis Dafnakis
VMVittorio Martini
Vittorio Martini
Giuseppe GiorgiGiuseppe Giorgi
Giuseppe Giorgi
VOVincenzo Orlando
Vincenzo Orlando
AGAndrea Gulisano
Andrea Gulisano
This work presents the Water Energy Point Absorber (WEPA), which is a heaving single-buoy point absorber optimized for a specific site off the west coast of Sardinia Island. The aim of the study is to present the optimization process undertaken to identify the best configuration in terms of performance and cost. The optimization is carried out thanks to a simulation tool developed in Matlab-Simulink environment and verified through to the commercial software Orcaflex. Simulations are performed in the time domain with the installation site’s waves as input. The hydrodynamics parameters are computed thanks to the commercial software Ansys Aqwa and given to the model as input. The yearly energy production is computed as output for each configuration. Several parametric analyses are performed to identify the optimal Power Take Off (PTO) and buoy size. Among the main findings, it shall be mentioned that the PTO-rated torque has a strong influence on the energy production, higher PTO-rated torque proved to have better performance. The optimal hull size is strictly related to the incoming waves, and for the given site the smaller hulls are performing better than larger ones. The hull height, hull mass and hull draft have little impact on productivity. Finally, a comprehensive techno–economic analysis is performed, showing that the best configuration can be identified only after a detailed feasibility study and rigorous cost analysis.