ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to present the experimental methodologies and challenges of testing a wave energy converter array, concentrically attached to a semisubmersible platform, and in presence of wind thrust forces and moments. The tower of a wind turbine has been placed in the center of the platform and connected to a mass-pulley system through a light weight cable to simulate the wind thrust forces acting on the tower. The testing campaign has been performed with and without wind thrust simulation in different operational sea states, different sets of wave energy converter arrays. The main challenges that were found were related to the parameters included in the wind thrust simulation such as scaling factors, allocation of masses for different sea states, and measuring tension in the cable. The results show that the wind thrust force affects more the platform with less number of wave energy converters in the array.
