# Theory & Practice

Note

This theory section is intended to give a very high-level understanding of key concepts for WecOptTool. For a more detailed explanation, please see [1, 2, 3]. A journal paper will be available soon.

## Basic concept

WecOptTool uses a pseudo-spectral method [4] to perform two tasks synchronously:

1. Optimize the solution for the desired objective function (e.g. power generation)

2. Simulate the wave energy converter (WEC) dynamics

This can be written as a traditional optimization problem:

(1)$\begin{split}\min\limits_x J(x) \\ \textrm{s.t.}& \\ r(x) &= 0 \\ c_{ineq}(x) &\leq 0 \\ c_{eq}(x) &= 0\end{split}$

Here, $$x$$ is the state vector which includes both the WEC dynamic state ($$x_{w}$$) and the user-defined control state to be optimized ($$x_{u}$$), as $$x = [x_{w}, x_{u}]$$. We wish to find optimal values for $$x_{u}$$ to minimize the objective function $$J(x)$$. This accomplishes task 1 from above. The solution is forced to follow the dynamics of the system via the constraint $$r(x) = 0$$, where $$r(x)$$ is the WEC dynamics equation in residual form. This accomplishes task 2 from above. The dynamic residual includes the linear hydrodynamic forces from a BEM solution plus any number of arbitrary nonlinear forces such as power take-off (PTO) force, mooring forces, and non-linear hydrodynamic forces. Additionally, any number of arbitrary nonlinear constraints, such as requiring a tether to remain in tension or limiting the maximum force exerted by the PTO, can be included in $$c_{ineq}(x)$$ and $$c_{eq}(x)$$.

Solving (1), we can find the optimal control state $$x_{u}$$ (e.g., PTO force) that minimizes our objective function (e.g., power generation) for a given WEC design subject to arbitrary constraints and including nonlinear dynamics. The pseudo-spectral method has a number of key attributes that make it well-suited to this application:

• Explicit constraints: Dynamic and kinematic constraints can be enforced explicitly, negating the need to run unfeasible solutions and thus reducing computational cost.

• Efficient simulation of nonlinear dynamics: Frequency-domain solutions cannot include nonlinear dynamics and time-domain solutions can only do so with significant computational cost; the pseudo-spectral method can efficiently handle nonlinear systems.

• Arbitrary or fixed controller structure: As a starting point, one may consider optimal control without a given structure. Later on, it may be useful to consider, e.g., a proportional feedback or latching controller. This can be accomplished via the pseudo-spectral method by structuring the system dynamics and the control vector ($$x_{u}$$).

The solution to (1) can be wrapped with an outer design optimization problem, in which any optimization algorithm can be applied. Some examples of problems which can be addressed within this framework include:

• Optimization of geometry dimensions for a hull

• Optimization of PTO components (e.g., inertia of a flywheel, a gear ratio)

• Optimization of ballast versus pre-tension

• Optimization of the layout for a WEC array

## How’s this different from what I’m used to?

Most users will be more familiar with a time-stepping approach for differential equations–this is the method applied in Simulink and therefore WEC-Sim. Starting from an initial time (e.g., $$t=0$$), the solution is solved by iteratively stepping forward in time.

Pseudo-spectral methods can be applied to solve the same differential equations, but solve the entire time period of interest at once. At first the solution will not be correct, but as the optimization algorithm iterates, it will progressively improve the solution.

Note

These animations are simplifications and do not fully capture all details of either the time-stepping or pseudo-spectral numerical optimization solution.

## Practical concerns

### Automatic differentiation

In practice, the size of the decision vector $$x$$ from (1) will often be quite large. For a single degree of freedom device, $$x$$ can easily be $$\mathcal{O}(1e2)$$. To obtain high accuracy solutions to optimization problems with large numbers of decision variables, without requiring users to provide analytic gradients (i.e., the Jacobian and Hessian matrices), WecOptTool employs the automatic differentiation package Autograd. In practice, most WecOptTool users should only need to know that when writing custom functions to define their device, they should simply use the Autograd replacement for NumPy by calling import autograd.numpy as np. Note that Autograd does not support all of NumPy (see the Autograd documentation) and using unsupported parts can result in silent failure of the automatic differentiation.

### Scaling

For many WEC problems, (1) will be poorly scaled. Recall that $$x = [x_{w}, x_{u}]$$, where $$x_{w}$$ describes the state of the WEC (e.g., velocities) and $$x_{u}$$ is a vector to be optimized to maximize power absorption. Consider, for example, a general case without a controller structure, in which $$x_{u}$$ would relate to PTO forces. For a wave tank scale device, one might expect velocities of $$\mathcal{O}(1e{-1})$$, but the forces could be $$\mathcal{O}(1e3)$$. For larger WECs, this discrepancy in the orders of magnitude may be even worse. Scaling mismatches in the decision variable $$x$$ and with the objective function $$J(x)$$ can lead to problems with convergence. To alleviate this issue, WecOptTool allows users to set scale factors for the components of $$x$$ as well as the objective function (see wecopttool.core.WEC.solve()). Additionally, you may set import logging, logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO) to output the maximum values of x and the objective function during the solution process. Depending on your problem, it may also be helpful to use the wecopttool.core.WEC.initial_x_wec_guess() method and/or the unconstrained_first for wecopttool.core.WEC.solve().

### Constraints

Constraints, such as maximum PTO force, maximum piston force, or maintaining tension in a tether, may be enforced in WecOptTool. This functionality is well-illustrated in Tutorial 1 - WaveBot. An important practical factor when using this functionality is to make sure that the constraint is evaluated at a sufficient number of collocation points. It may be required to enforce constraints at more points than the dynamics (as defined by the frequency array). In WecOptTool’s example PTO module, this is controlled by the nsubsteps argument (see, e.g., wecopttool.pto.PseudoSpectralPTO.force()).

### Buoyancy/gravity

As WecOptTool is intended primarily to utilize linear potential flow hydrodynamics, a linear hydrostatic stiffness is used. The implicit assumption of this approach is that the body is neutrally buoyant (i.e., gravitational and buoyancy forces are in balance at the zero position). However, some WECs achieve equilibrium through a pretension applied via mooring and/or the PTO. In this case, the device can still be modeled with the linear hydrostatic stiffness, but if you wish to solve for the pretension force in your simulations, you may explicitly include the buoyancy, gravity, and pretension forces via the f_add argument to wecopttool.core.WEC.

### PTO Kinematics

The wecopttool.pto module includes several examples of PTOs that can be used for both additional PTO forces on the WEC dynamics and for objective functions (e.g., PTO average power). Creating one of these pre-defined PTOs requires specifying the kinematics matrix. Here, the kinematics matrix, $$K$$, is defined as the linear transformation from the WEC position (e.g., heave) in the global frame, $$x$$, to the PTO position in the PTO frame (e.g., tether length/generator rotation), $$p$$:

(2)$p = K x$

The relationship $$p(x)$$ is typically referred to as the forward kinematics. The matrix $$K$$ has a size equal to the number of DOFs of the PTOs times the number of DOFs of the WEC. Note, however that the real kinematics might not be linear. Equation (2) represents a linearization of $$p(x)$$ about the mean $$x=0$$ position, with the matrix $$K$$ being the Jacobian of $$p(x)$$ at $$x=0$$.

The transpose of $$K$$ is used to transform the PTO forces in PTO frame, $$f_p$$, to the PTO forces on the WEC, $$f_w$$:

(3)$f_w = K^T f_p$

This relationship can be derived from conservation of energy in both frames, and using the definition in Equation (2):

(4)$\begin{split}f_w^T x = f_p^T p \\ f_w^T x = f_p^T K x \\ f_w^T = f_p^T K \\ f_w = K^T f_p \\\end{split}$