Abstract
In this paper the numerical modelling of an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Wave Energy Converter (WEC) is studied using DualSPHysics, a software that applies the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. SPH is a Lagrangian meshless method used in a growing range of applications within the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The power take-off (PTO) system of the OWC WEC is numerically modelled by adding a force on a plate floating on top of the free surface inside the OWC chamber. That force is implemented in the multiphysics library Project Chrono, which avoids the need of simulating the air phase that is computationally expensive in the SPH methods. Validation is carried out with experimental data received from the Korea Research Institute of Ship and Ocean Engineering (KRISO) and Ocean Energy Systems (OES) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 10. The numerical and experimental water surface elevation at the centre of the OWC WEC chamber and the airflow speed through the orifice are compared for different wave conditions and different PTO systems (different orifice diameters at the top part of the chamber of the OWC WEC). Results show that DualSPHysics is a valid tool to model an OWC WEC with and without PTO system, even though no air phase is included.
Highlights
Wave energy is a potential source of clean electricity that can make a significant contribution to the de-carbonization of the world’s electricity supply
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the basic theoretical principles of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and its implementation in DualSPHysics; Section 3 gives an overview of the experimental campaign carried out at KRISO and used for validation in the current research; Section 4 provides a description of the methodology followed to model the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Wave Energy Converter (WEC) in DualSPHysics, with and without power take-off (PTO) system; Section 5 discusses the main results obtained using DualSPHysics; Section 6 presents an overview of the conclusions
The PTO system has been modelled in DualSPHysics by adding a plate floating on the free water surface inside the OWC WEC chamber, on which a PTO force acts implemented with the coupling between DualSPHysics and Project Chrono
Summary
Wave energy is a potential source of clean electricity that can make a significant contribution to the de-carbonization of the world’s electricity supply. The compression and decompression of the air in the OWC WEC chamber causes the free-surface elevation to be damped (PTO system damping) This software has proven to be a valuable tool in the modelling of wave-structure interaction in general and of WECs in particular: in Ropero-Giralda et al (2020, 2021), Tagliafierro et al (2019) and Quartier et al (2021) point-absorber WECs were studied, in Brito et al (2020) an Oscillating Wave Surge Converter (OWSC) was modelled, an OWC WEC was simulated in Crespo et al (2017) and in Verbrugghe et al (2018, 2019) a coupling methodology was developed in order to compute the modified wave field effects surrounding a point-absorber WEC. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the basic theoretical principles of SPH and its implementation in DualSPHysics; Section 3 gives an overview of the experimental campaign carried out at KRISO and used for validation in the current research; Section 4 provides a description of the methodology followed to model the OWC WEC in DualSPHysics, with and without PTO system; Section 5 discusses the main results obtained using DualSPHysics; Section 6 presents an overview of the conclusions
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