The paper presents an analysis of the maximum pressure loads on the hull of the Martifer Energy WEC. A boundary integral method is used to solve the hydrodynamic problem. The first step consists on validating the numerical results of motions by comparisons with measured experimental data obtained with a scaled model of the WEC. The numerical model is tuned by adjusting the damping of the rotational motions of the device and the equivalent damping of the power take off system.
Then a convergence analysis of the pressure distributions is carried out and the sensitivity of the results with respect to the mesh density and distribution is also assessed. Finally the pressure distributions are calculated for a number of regular waves and also severe irregular sea states. The maximum pressures in irregular seas are represented by probability distributions of maxima.
