Hyperelastic modelling of elastomers for wave energy convertors

Idarraga, Guillermo and Yang, Liu and Abad, Farhad and Huang, Yang and Dai, David and Xiao, Qing and Lotfian, Saeid and Brennan, Feargal; (2023) Hyperelastic modelling of elastomers for wave energy convertors. In: Proceedings of the ASME 2023 42st International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering. ASME, AUS.

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Abstract

Flexible Wave Energy Converters (WECs) have gained considerable attention in recent years due to their ability to adapt to the dynamic conditions of the waves. To reach commercialization, further analyses should be done to guarantee survivability, and numerical models have been used to predict the structural response of WECs. However, the accuracy of any prediction will depend on the validity of the hyperelastic model employed and the reliability of the test data input into the chosen model. In this work, two elastomers are selected and characterised by plane stress, plane strain and biaxial stress conditions. Hyperelastic models are evaluated using ABAQUS, and hyperelastic constants are obtained for each elastomer. For the validation of the hyperelastic constants, experiments are conducted for one of the elastomers on the top of an oscillating water column (OWC) WEC. From the experiments, the deformation of the elastomeric membrane under wave conditions is obtained and compared with the results of a numerical model using the hyperelastic constants. From the results, the hyperelastic models describe well the deformation trend of the membrane on the top of the OWC, however further analysis should be done to improve the accuracy of the models

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