The present paper deals with the development of a multi-purpose floating tension leg platform (TLP) concept suitable for the combined offshore wind and wave energy resources exploitation, taking into account the prevailing environmental conditions at selected locations along the European coastline. The examined Renewable Energy Multi-Purpose Floating Offshore System (REFOS) platform encompasses an array of hydrodynamically interacting oscillating water column (OWC) devices, moored through tensioned tethers as a TLP platform supporting a 10 MW wind turbine (WT). The system consists of a triangular platform supported by cylindrical floaters, with the WT mounted at the deck’s center and the cylindrical OWC devices at its corners. Details of the modelling of the system are discussed and hydro-aero-elastic coupling between the floater; the mooring system; and the WT is presented. The analysis incorporates the solutions of the diffraction; the motion- and the pressure-dependent radiation problems around the moored structure, along with the aerodynamics of the WT into an integrated design approach validated through extensive experimental hydrodynamic scaled-down model tests. The verified theoretical results attest to the importance of the WT loading and the OWC characteristics on the dynamics of the system.

The present paper deals with the theoretical evaluation of the efficiency of an array of cylindrical Wave Energy Converters (WECs) having a vertical symmetry axis and placed in front of a reflecting vertical breakwater. Linear potential theory is assumed, and the associated diffraction and motion radiation problems are solved in the frequency domain. Axisymmetric eigenfunction expansions of the velocity potential are introduced into properly defined ring-shaped fluid regions surrounding each body of the array. The potential solutions are matched at the boundaries of adjacent fluid regions by enforcing continuity of the hydrodynamic pressures and redial velocities. A theoretical model for the evaluation of the WECs’ performance is developed. The model properly accounts for the effect of the breakwater on each body’s hydrodynamic characteristics and the coupling between the bodies’ motions and the power take-off mechanism. Numerical results are presented and discussed in terms of the expected power absorption. The results show how the efficiency of the array is affected by (a) the distance between the devices and the wall, (b) the shape of the WEC array configuration, as well as (c) the angle of the incoming incident wave.

The present paper deals with the analytical evaluation of the hydrodynamic characteristics of an array of vertical axisymmetric bodies of arbitrary shape, placed in front of a reflecting vertical breakwater, which can be conceived as floaters for wave power absorption. At the first part of the paper, the hydrodynamic interactions between the floaters and the adjacent breakwater are exactly taken into account using the method of images, whereas, the interaction phenomena between the floaters of the array are estimated using the multiple scattering approach. For the solution of the problem, the flow field around each floater of the array is subdivided into ring-shaped fluid regions, in each of which axisymmetric eigenfunction expansions for the velocity potential are made. In the second part of the paper, extensive theoretical results are presented concerning the exciting wave forces and the hydrodynamic coefficients for various arrays’ arrangements of axisymmetric floaters. The aim of the study is to show parametrically the effect that the vertical breakwater has on the hydrodynamic characteristics of each particular floater.

This paper summarizes the coupled hydro-aero-elastic analysis of a multi-purpose floating structure suitable for offshore wind and wave energy exploitation. The analysis incorporates properly the solutions of the diffraction and the pressure- and motion- dependent radiation problems around the floating structure and the aerodynamics of a 5 MW Wind Turbine (WT). Finite water depths are considered, the structure being floating under the action of regular surface waves. The platform encompasses three hydrodynamically interacting Oscillating Water Column (OWC) devices consisting of concentric vertical cylinders, moored through tensioned tethers in a TLP concept. Details concerning the numerical and experimental modelling of the system are presented and the numerical results are compared against experimental data.