Traditional energy sources are becoming more and more rare as human civilization and the global economy evolve, and humanity is gradually turning its focus to the wide sector of ocean energy. A lot of different types of power generators have been developed as a result of research into marine renewable energy, which includes wave power generators. The structural design and hydrodynamic performance of oscillating float-type power generation devices, one type of wave energy power generation device, have a significant influence on analyzing the motion characteristics and efficacy of wave energy devices. The criteria for large-scale power generation cannot be met by a single float-type wave energy generation equipment because it is unable to completely use the wave energy in the sea per unit area. Wave energy may be constantly and uniformly absorbed by array float wave energy generating technology, which significantly lowers the cost of power generation.
People have given the development of renewable resources considerable thought since the 1973 start of the oil crisis. Research on wave energy devices is still in its infancy overseas, particularly in offshore nations. During the energy crisis of 1974, Stephen Salter [
1], a marine engineer at the University of Edinburgh, created Salter’s duck, a wave energy device that was the first to use oscillating floats to harness wave energy. McIver [
2] discovered in 1994 that changes in wave direction angle had a major influence on device motion, and that the presence of a particular range of wave direction angles can maximize the array device’s impact factor. In 2002, Falcao [
3], based on linear wave theory, came to the conclusion that the form of the array arrangement influences how hydrodynamic motion affects the device’s ability to collect energy. In 2007, Fitzgerald et al. [
4] investigated the impact of various float array arrangements and incoming wave directions using numerical techniques, and they discovered that the average value of the influence coefficient of the array device was almost equal to 1. The macroscopic characteristic equations of the array system were constructed by Garnaud [
5] in 2009, and they discovered that the array system outperformed single floats in terms of capturing wave energy. In 2011, Haller [
6] et al. performed experiments with arrayed wave energy devices, analyzing the effective wave energy capturing effect between the array device in a regular wave and under the irregularity. However, they did not perform a thorough analysis of the hydrodynamic properties between the floats. In 2012, Borgarino [
7] discovered that the PTO system had a certain level of damping, meaning that the float spacing has little to no impact on the device’s overall hydrodynamics and energy. In 2016, Wolgamot [
8] et al. carried out a hydrodynamic analysis of the square array floats for the analysis and discovered that there is an approximate trapped wave phenomena between the floats, wave energy will be concentrated, and the collected power of the array will be greatly boosted. In 2017, Penalba [
9] et al. discovered that the energy absorption is best at a specific array spacing and that hydrodynamic interactions have a higher impact on the device’s overall collected power at lower array spacings. A frequency domain analytical model of the hydrodynamic properties of an arrayed float wave energy device was created by Wei [
10] in 2019 and its nonlinear PTO damping effect was calculated. In 2020, Gomes [
11] et al. tested a five-float array physically, examined the device’s motion and mooring stresses, and contrasted the mooring performance of the device under various array configurations.