ABSTRACT
The paper focuses on the assessment of the Annualised Energy Production of a new resonant point absorber, equipped with a fully submerged toroidal shape, whose main dimensions can be properly tuned depending on the met-ocean conditions at the deployment site. After briefly discussing the hydrodynamic model in the time-domain, a parametric study is performed to investigate the incidence of the main dimensions of the fully submerged mass on the yearly energy production of the new WEC device, considering two candidate deployment sites located along the Portuguese coastline, the former between Viana do Castelo and Porto, the latter between Nazaré and Peniche. Current results are fully discussed and a comparative analysis with the energy production of a conventional floating buoy, with the same main dimensions but without the toroidal shape, is also provided to prove the effectiveness of the new WEC device, in terms of power production.
