Extreme Value Analysis of Wave Energy Converters

This paper presents a statistical Extreme Value Analysis (EVA) methodology to evaluate the design survivability condition of a Wave Energy Converter (WEC). The technique is applied to the Oyster ® WEC design which is being developed by Aquamarine Power Ltd. (APL) but can be easily modified to investigate other technologies that have different operational philosophies. The approach presented considers the extreme statistics of both the incident wave climate at the device location and the complex dynamic response of the WEC in such conditions. This give a more robust evaluation of the WECs survivability condition than a more traditional single design wave approach.