  The aim of this work is to assess the influence of different degrees of
adaptability of the power take-off (PTO) system on the power absorption of
dense wave energy converter (WEC) arrays. The adaptability is included in
simulations through a transmission ratio that scales the force actuating the
PTO relative to the force generated by the motion of a floater. A numerical
model is used in which hydrodynamic interactions between floaters and
nonlinearities in the PTO are considered. The lower computational cost of this
numerical model makes it possible to study the power extraction of a dense WEC
array in irregular waves to easily create power matrices and other performance
metrics. The methodology is applied to the case study of the Ocean Grazer WEC
to showcase the potential performance improvements achieved through the
inclusion of a transmission ratio. The analysis shows that including a high
degree of adaptability and choosing WEC array configurations and PTO designs
specific to potential deployment locations early in the design process can lead
to an increase in extracted power.
