Wave Energy Converter: Resonance & PTO Damping Tuning

This simulator models a heaving point-absorber buoy — the mechanism behind real ocean wave energy converters — as a single degree-of-freedom spring-mass-damper system driven by an incident wave. Instead of just watching a buoy bob, you directly control the two levers that determine how much electricity it generates: the buoy's natural period (tuned by ballast mass) and the power take-off's damping coefficient. Bring the natural period into resonance with the wave period and the response amplitude — and power output — climbs sharply, exactly as linear wave-energy theory predicts; then sweep the PTO damping to find the sweet spot between "too loose to extract energy" and "too stiff to move." Live readouts track instantaneous and time-averaged power, heave amplitude, and how close the buoy comes to the theoretical capture-width limit for a heave-only absorber.