Hardware-In-the-Loop test for the optimal damping identification of oscillating buoy wave energy converters

The Power-Take-Off (PTO) damping is a significant factor on energy harvesting capacity of Wave Energy Converters (WEC), which cannot be determined through the traditional laboratory test. In order to consider the complexity of the PTO damping mechanism, the Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) methodology is employed to focus on the PTO performance and the energy harvesting capacity in this paper. The dynamic numerical model, servo drives, and data transmission system are integrated in the HIL system, and the established system is then applied to the optimal damping identification of the WEC device which is assembled with the PTO containing a Mechanical Motion Rectifier (MMR). The experimental results indicate that the maximum power appears at the different damping values since the multi-stage energy capture characteristics are affected by the damping mechanism within the mechanical PTO, and the wave height has little effect on the damping values corresponding to the maximum power. This phenomenon is worth noting during the process of the PTO test, and could provide intuitive guidance for the reasonable design and control strategy optimization of the PTO. •The HIL methodology is proposed for the laboratory test of the oscillating buoy wave energy converters.•Several approaches have been proposed to achieve the better performance of the HIL simulation.•Multi-stage energy capture characteristics under the effect of the damping mechanism within the mechanical PTO is analyzed.