Abstract

Wave-energy converters extracting energy from ocean waves are known to suffer from poor efficiency. We propose structures capable of substantially amplifying water waves over a broad range of frequencies at selected locations, with the idea of enhanced energy extraction. The structures consist of full or C-shaped bottom-mounted cylinders arranged in one-dimensional or two-dimensional arrays, with the cylinder properties or the array spacing graded along the array. Using linear potential-flow theory, it is shown that the energy carried by a plane incident wave is amplified within specified locations, for wavelengths comparable to the array length, and for a range of incident directions. Transfer-matrix analysis is used to analyse the large amplifications and we also show results from recent wave-flume experiments confirming the amplification phenomenon in pratice.