Measurements of the slow drift dynamics of a model Pelamis wave energy converter

The Pelamis wave energy converter (WEC) is moored with a clump-assisted wire catenary of high compliance that, coupled with the displacement mass of Pelamis, has a resonant frequency an order of magnitude lower than the wave frequencies. The mooring is thus decoupled from first-order wave excitation, and is excited by second-order slowly varying drift forces, which are mainly due to the wave momentum transferred to the device as wave power is absorbed. The slow drift motion is damped by a combination of drag and wave-drift damping. This paper describes an experimental investigation of the slow-drift excitation and damping.