The purpose of this paper is to investigate the control and optimization of the power output system for a multi-body floating wave energy converter (MBFWEC) with wave protection effects.

To study the interaction of the multi-body floating WEC with waves, a numerical wave flume is constructed using OpenFOAM software. The experiment simulates the interaction between the WEC and waves under different power take-off (PTO) strategies, namely linear, constant, linear spring, velocity-squared and snap through PTO systems, then compares the energy capture efficiency and wave dissipation performance of the WEC under each.

The results show that the wave energy capture efficiency of the MBFWEC can reach up to 52.6%. The linear spring and snap through PTO systems, which are based on the optimization of linear PTO, have a certain degree of influence on the WEC and its wave dissipation effects. However, linear PTO is more advantageous than linear spring and snap through when considering both wave energy capture and wave dissipation effects.

This study identifies the advantageous wave intervals of PTO systems such as constant damping and velocity-squared damping, and can provide useful references for optimizing PTO system settings for MBFWECs.