A proposed method for predicting extreme design forces of wave energy converters

This paper proposes to utilize a Generalized Gamma distribution for fitting the significant wave height data in order to more accurately calculate the sea state parameter distribution tails. The accuracy of the proposed method has been demonstrated based on the fittings to two ocean wave data sets. This proposed method has subsequently been utilized for deriving a 50-year environmental contour line. The engineering significance of using a more reliable contour line such as the one derived using the proposed method for predicting the long-term design force values for wave energy converters has been highlighted.