SPH4WEC

DualSPHysics input files for four wave energy converter benchmarks

This repository contains the configuration files required to reproduce the SPH simulations of four wave energy converter (WEC) devices, as presented in the following companion publications:

• Tagliafierro et al. (2026). High-fidelity Simulations for Wave Energy Converters — A Review of the Contribution of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method. Energy Reports. (in preparation)
• Tagliafierro et al. (2026). Implementation and validation of DualSPHysics v5.4 for the simulation of wave energy converters: governing equations, multiphysics coupling, and four representative benchmarks. MethodsX. (to be co-submitted)

All simulations were run using DualSPHysics v5.4.3, and their outcomes are described and discussed on the MethodsX paper. Other versions may work but compatibility is only guaranteed for v5.4.3.

---

Contents

Devices

OWSC — IMFIA Oscillating Wave Surge Converter

	Oscillating wave surge converter
Mooring	None
PTO	Rotational
Folder	OWSC/

Figure 1. Relevant snapshots taken across one wave period for the simulation run with SPH2 for the OWSC. The particle coloring represents the horizontal velocity of the fluid.

UUWEC — Uppsala University Wave Energy Converter

Property	Value
Type	Point absorber
Mooring	Taut line
PTO	Linear
Folder	UUWEC/

Figure 2. Relevant snapshots taken on right after the first wave crest has passed, for resolution SPH2 for the UUWEC. The particle coloring represents the horizontal velocity of the fluid.

Multifloat M4 — Multi-float Wave Attenuator

Property	Value
Type	Wave attenuator
Mooring	Catenary
PTO	Rotational
Folder	Multifloat_M4/

Figure 3. Relevant snapshots taken on right after the first wave crest has passed. This data regards resolution SPH2 for the Multi-float M4. The particle coloring represents the horizontal velocity of the fluid.

FOSWEC — Floating Oscillating Wave Surge Converter

Property	Value
Type	Floating OWSC platform
Mooring	Taut lines
PTO	Rotational
Folder	FOSWEC/

Figure 4. Relevant snapshots taken across one wave period; the zoomed views only show half of the water volume. This data regards resolution SPH2 for the FOSWEC. The particle coloring represents the horizontal velocity of the fluid.

File structure

Each device folder follows the same layout:

<DEVICE>/
├── *_wave_R[1-3]_Def.xml       # Empty-tank wave propagation at three resolutions
├── *_device_R[1-3]_Def.xml     # Full WEC simulation at three resolutions
├── *_wave_reg_R[1-3]_Def.xml   # Reflection analysis case (UWEC and M4 only)
├── *.stl                       # Solid body geometries (where applicable)
├── *.dat                       # Wavemaker signal or focused wave input (where applicable)
├── allRun.sh                   # Runs all resolutions sequentially
└── runGPU.sh                   # Runs a single user-specified case on GPU

Note: The UUWEC buoy geometry is defined analytically inside the XML file; no STL is required for that case. This folder also includes an extra XML file for the definition of multi-body contact features.

Resolution convention

Resolutions are labelled consistently across all folders:

Repository label	Paper label	Description
R1	SPH1	Coarsest
R2	SPH2	Medium
R3	SPH3	Finest

Particle counts, runtimes, and real-time factors (RTF) for each resolution are reported in the MethodsX companion paper.

---

Getting started

Requirements

• DualSPHysics v5.4.3 — available at https://dual.sphysics.org/downloads (GNU LGPL v3)
• Project Chrono and MoorDynPlus — both coupled with DualSPHysics; no separate installation required
• Linux or Windows (scripts provided for Linux; Windows users should refer to the DualSPHysics documentation)

Installation

# Clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/btagliafierro/SPH4WEC.git
cd SPH4WEC

# Download and unzip DualSPHysics v5.4.3 from https://dual.sphysics.org/downloads
# Note the path to the bin/ folder after extraction

On Linux, you may need to grant execute permission to the DualSPHysics binaries:

chmod +x /path/to/DualSPHysics/bin/*

The DualSPHysics distribution includes a convenience script to do this — refer to its documentation for details.

Running a case

# Navigate to the device folder of interest
cd OWSC

# Run all three resolutions sequentially
./allRun.sh

# Or run a single resolution on GPU
./runGPU.sh <name_xml>

Warning: allRun.sh does not prompt for confirmation before overwriting existing output folders.

If the DualSPHysics executables are not found automatically, edit the dirbin variable at the top of each shell script to point to your local installation.

---

Case references

Folder	Numerical setup	Experimental data
OWSC/	Brito et al. (2020), Renew. Energy 146, 2024–2043. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2019.08.034	Brito et al. (2020), Renew. Energy 151, 975–992. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.094
UUWEC/	Tagliafierro et al. (2022), Appl. Energy. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.118629	Göteman et al. (2015), International ocean and polar engineering conference
Multifloat_M4/	Carpintero Moreno et al. (2020), Proceedings of 4th International Conference on Renewable Energies Offshore	Santo et al. (2017), Journal of Fluid Mechanics doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2016.872
FOSWEC/	Tagliafierro et al. (2022), OMAE2022.	Ruehl et al. (2020), Ocean Engineering. doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2019.106575

---

Availability

Resource	Link	Description
Zenodo archive		Citable snapshot tied to the companion publications
GitHub repository	btagliafierro/SPH4WEC	Living repository — updates, fixes, and new versions

If you are reproducing the results of the companion papers, use the Zenodo archive. For the latest version of the files, refer to the GitHub repository.

Citation

If you use these files in your work, please cite the Zenodo archive:

@misc{Tagliafierro_2026_sph4wec,
  author    = {Tagliafierro, Bonaventura and others},
  title     = {{SPH4WEC}: DualSPHysics input files for four wave energy converter benchmarks},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.19225048},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19225048}
}

---

License

The data and configuration files in this repository are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

You are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, including commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors.

© 2026 Bonaventura Tagliafierro