Experimental observation of surface currents produced by WEC radiation and diffraction

The installation of Wave Energy Converters (WECs) in the environment inevitably makes an impact on the environment (whether positive or negative). One area of concern is the development of currents due to the interaction of the wave climate with the WEC and whether this might interfere with the pre-existing processes, such as sediment transport and currents. This paper reports on the observation of surface currents measured in experiments performed on a simple WEC analogue in different experimental conditions and finds that the surface currents are consistent with a pattern of toroidal vortices aligned with the axis along which the body oscillates.