In the last 10 years, WRL has drawn on its long standing experience in marine and coastal engineering to provide expert advice to the Australian wave energy conversion industry. In parallel to its commercial engineering activities, WRL has also been pursuing high-level academic research in the field of wave energy conversion, with a focus on both physical and numerical modelling of wave-wave energy converter (WEC) interactions.

This physical modelling research project aimed to increase the understanding of the power output performance of the Salter’s Duck and the transfer of energy from monochromatic waves to a single duck.

Research was conducted by performing a 3D mapping of the duck surface pressure distribution; as well as shaft torque, shaft rotational speed, surge force and heave force responses, for a wide range of wave conditions. The 3D mapping of the duck surface pressure was used to accurately derive values for torque surge force and heave force in order to develop a optimisation algorithm.

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