Motion Decay Simulations of a Moored Wave Energy Converter

Author(s):  
Changqing Jiang ◽  
Ould el Moctar ◽  
Thomas E. Schellin ◽  
Guilherme Moura Paredes

Abstract Significant cost reductions are required for marine renewable energy to become competitive. Aside from the deployment of arrays, one key area that has been identified as having potential for cost reductions is the mooring system. A challenge, therefore, is to design mooring systems which can satisfy their primary role of station keeping while being affordable and durable. This paper presents the effects of three different mooring configurations on the motion behavior of a buoy type wave energy convertor, considering nonlinear mooring-induced fluid-structure interactions, such as the associated viscous effects. To simulate motion decay, an overset mesh method that coupled a dynamic mooring model with the Navier-Stokes equations flow solver OpenFOAM was adopted. The mooring configurations comprised an all catenary system, a catenary system with buoys, and a catenary system with buoys and clump weights. The favorable agreement between the simulations and experimental measurements validated the coupled numerical approach for simulating different mooring configurations. The mooring systems influenced not only restoring force characteristics, but also total damping of the system, which demonstrated the importance of considering mooring-induced damping when investigating moored offshore structures.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 350
Author(s):  
Changqing Jiang ◽  
Ould el Moctar ◽  
Thomas E. Schellin

The hydrodynamic damping of a buoy stationed with three different mooring configurations was estimated using a Navier-Stokes (NS) equations solver coupled with a dynamic mooring model. The mooring configurations comprised a catenary system, a catenary system with sub floaters, and a catenary system with sub floaters and clump weights. Systematic simulations were achieved by adopting the overset grid scheme instead of the conventional morphing grid scheme, which required regenerating the entire mesh when the buoy’s initial position changed, thereby avoiding mesh distortions and numerical instabilities. Motion decay simulations in heave, pitch, and surge were conducted with and without various mooring systems. The analyzed results comprised decaying oscillating motions, natural periods, and associated amounts of damping. The mooring systems influenced not only restoring force characteristics, but also total damping of the moored buoy, which demonstrated the importance of considering mooring-induced damping when investigating moored offshore structures.


Author(s):  
Stefan Weber ◽  
Hannes Benetschik ◽  
Dieter Peitsch ◽  
Heinz E. Gallus

During the design process of compressor and turbine blades the investigation of flutter phenomena becomes increasingly important since higher load and better efficiency are desired. As an improvement on the numerical analysis and prediction of unsteady flow through turbomachine cascades with vibrating blades a time accurate Navier Stokes code for S1-stream surfaces SAFES1 is presented within the scope of this paper. To validate the code, numerical results for sub- and transonic test cases of a turbine and a compressor cascade are compared with experimental data. Their good agreement and comparison with Euler calculations show the necessity to take into account viscous effects. To cope with shock waves and areas of separation in laminar or turbulent flow, the fully non linearized Navier Stokes equations are solved using an algebraic turbulence model by Baldwin and Lomax. An approximative upwind flux difference splitting scheme suggested by Roe is implemented. Third order spatial accuracy can be achieved by the MUSCL technique in conjunction with a TVD scheme and a flux limiter by van Albada. By applying either an explicit or an implicit scheme the algorithm can give second order temporal accuracy. The implicit scheme exactly describes the time dependent solution by following a Newton subiteration for every time step. The blades are discretized in a single passage by a C- or O-type grid. The harmonic motion of the blades is bending or torsion or both simultaneously in a non-rotating or rotating frame of reference. For the chosen mode of oscillation the time dependent axial and circumferential blade forces are determined as well as the resulting moment and damping coefficient. To handle a phaseshift between the motion of the blades a direct store method is used. For the unsteady grid movement a fast grid generation is performed in the core region.


Author(s):  
Adrien Courbois ◽  
Emmanuel Tcheuko ◽  
Benjamin Bouscasse ◽  
Youngmyung Choi ◽  
Olivier Kimmoun ◽  
...  

Wave drift loads play a key role in station-keeping analysis of floating offshore structures. However, conventional radiation/diffraction tools have some limitations especially when the structure has sharp edges, requiring more extended validation. In this paper, a series of CFD computations are performed on a 2D simplified shape representing a rectangular-pontoon, with or without a horizontal damping plate. In the present study, the structure is considered to be fixed (radiation effects are not included). For validation, the results of CFD are compared with the results of experiments. The model tests are performed at the wave canal with an equivalent configuration. The drift forces are derived from the reflected and transmitted waves thanks to far field formulation. The incident, reflected and transmitted waves are separated by using a multi “sensors” method. The dissipation of wave energy is also investigated. The analysis is performed on two different model configurations: with and without the presence of a bottom damping plate. The effect of the damping plate on the wave energy dissipation and drift forces are discussed. The results obtained allows for a better understanding and will allow the study on more complex configurations.


Author(s):  
Anaïs Brandely ◽  
Jean-Sébastien Schotté ◽  
Emmanuel Lefrançois ◽  
Benjamin Hagege ◽  
Roger Ohayon

The dynamic response of a sloshing liquid to horizontal movements of a rectangular tank with a small amplitude is studied here by a numerical approach issued from a commercial CFD code. This numerical model solves Navier-Stokes equations considering a two-phase flow. In order to check the localized turbulence effects on the global fluid behavior, the averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved with laminar option and with a k–ω SST turbulence model. The Volume Of Fluid (VOF) method is adopted to track the distorted free surface. The previous CFD solution is compared with a linearized approach based on the potential flow theory taking into account viscous effects. This model considers a single phase flow and is much less expensive in CPU time, especially thanks to the use of modal projection techniques. Both models are validated and applied on several cases. Free surface sloshing elevation and global forces, obtained for various excitation amplitudes and frequencies, are compared. Perfect and viscous liquids are considered.


1992 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 413-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Min Hyun ◽  
Jun Sang Park

Spin-up flows of a compressible gas in a finite, closed cylinder from an initial state of rest are studied, The flow is characterized by small reference Ekman numbers, and the peripheral Mach number is O(1). Comprehensive numerical solutions have been obtained for the full, time-dependent compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The details of the flow, temperature, and density evolution are described. In the early phase of spin-up, owing to the thermoacoustic disturbances caused by the compressible Rayleigh effect, the flows are oscillatory, and this oscillatory behaviour is pronounced at higher Mach numbers. The principal dynamical role of the Ekman layer is dominant over moderate times of orders of the homogeneous spin-up timescales. Owing to the density stratification in the radial direction, the Ekman layer is thicker in the central region of the interior. The interior azimuthal flows are mainly uniform in the axial direction. As the Mach number increases, the rate of spin-up in the interior becomes slower, and the propagating shear front is more diffusive. Explicit comparisons with the results for an infinite cylinder are made to ascertain the contributions of the endwall disks. In contrast to the usual incompressible spin-up from rest, the viscous effects are relatively more important for the case of a compressible fluid.


Author(s):  
Rubén Bruno Díaz ◽  
Jesuino Takachi Tomita ◽  
Cleverson Bringhenti ◽  
Francisco Carlos Elizio de Paula ◽  
Luiz Henrique Lindquist Whitacker

Abstract Numerical simulations were carried out with the purpose of investigating the effect of applying circumferential grooves at axial compressor casing passive wall treatment to enhance the stall margin and change the tip leakage flow. The tip leakage flow is pointed out as one of the main contributors to stall inception in axial compressors. Hence, it is of major importance to treat appropriately the flow in this region. Circumferential grooves have shown a good performance in enhancing the stall margin in previous researches by changing the flow path in the tip clearance region. In this work, a passive wall treatment with four circumferential grooves was applied in the transonic axial compressor NASA Rotor 37. Its effect on the axial compressor performance and the flow in the tip clearance region was analyzed and set against the results attained for the smooth wall case. A 2.63% increase in the operational range of the axial compressor running at 100%N, was achieved, when compared with the original smooth wall casing configuration. The grooves installed at compressor casing, causes an increase in the flow entropy generation due to the high viscous effects in this gap region, between the rotor tip surface and casing with grooves. These viscous effects cause a drop in the turbomachine efficiency. For the grooves configurations used in this work, an efficiency drop of 0.7% was observed, compared with the original smooth wall. All the simulations were performed based on 3D turbulent flow calculations using Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, and the flow eddy viscosity was determined using the two-equation SST turbulence model. The details of the grooves geometrical dimensions and its implementation are described in the paper.


Author(s):  
Pierre Ferrant ◽  
Lionel Gentaz ◽  
Bertrand Alessandrini ◽  
Romain Luquet ◽  
Charles Monroy ◽  
...  

This paper documents recent advances of the SWENSE (Spectral Wave Explicit Navier-Stokes Equations) approach, a method for simulating fully nonlinear wave-body interactions including viscous effects. The methods efficiently combines a fully nonlinear potential flow description of undisturbed wave systems with a modified set of RANS with free surface equations accounting for the interaction with a ship or marine structure. Arbitrary incident wave systems may be described, including regular, irregular waves, multidirectional waves, focused wave events, etc. The model may be fixed or moving with arbitrary speed and 6 degrees of freedom motion. The extension of the SWENSE method to 6 DOF simulations in irregular waves as well as to manoeuvring simulations in waves are discussed in this paper. Different illlustative simulations are presented and discussed. Results of the present approach compare favorably with available reference results.


Author(s):  
Eirini Katsidoniotaki ◽  
Edward Ransley ◽  
Scott Brown ◽  
Johannes Palm ◽  
Jens Engström ◽  
...  

Abstract Accurate modeling and prediction of extreme loads for survivability is of crucial importance if wave energy is to become commercially viable. The fundamental differences in scale and dynamics from traditional offshore structures, as well as the fact that wave energy has not converged around one or a few technologies, implies that it is still an open question how the extreme loads should be modeled. In recent years, several methods to model wave energy converters in extreme waves have been developed, but it is not yet clear how the different methods compare. The purpose of this work is the comparison of two widely used approaches when studying the response of a point-absorber wave energy converter in extreme waves, using the open-source CFD software OpenFOAM. The equivalent design-waves are generated both as equivalent regular waves and as focused waves defined using NewWave theory. Our results show that the different extreme wave modeling methods produce different dynamics and extreme forces acting on the system. It is concluded that for the investigation of point-absorber response in extreme wave conditions, the wave train dynamics and the motion history of the buoy are of high importance for the resulting buoy response and mooring forces.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Bigay ◽  
A. Bardin ◽  
G. Oger ◽  
D. Le Touzé

In order to efficiently address complex problems in hydrodynamics, the advances in the development of a new method are presented here. This method aims at finding a good compromise between computational efficiency, accuracy, and easy handling of complex geometries. The chosen method is an Explicit Cartesian Finite Volume method for Hydrodynamics (ECFVH) based on a compressible (hyperbolic) solver, with a ghost-cell method for geometry handling and a Level-set method for the treatment of biphase-flows. The explicit nature of the solver is obtained through a weakly-compressible approach chosen to simulate nearly-incompressible flows. The explicit cell-centered resolution allows for an efficient solving of very large simulations together with a straightforward handling of multi-physics. A characteristic flux method for solving the hyperbolic part of the Navier-Stokes equations is used. The treatment of arbitrary geometries is addressed in the hyperbolic and viscous framework. Viscous effects are computed via a finite difference computation of viscous fluxes and turbulent effects are addressed via a Large-Eddy Simulation method (LES). The Level-Set solver used to handle biphase flows is also presented. The solver is validated on 2-D test cases (flow past a cylinder, 2-D dam break) and future improvements are discussed.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl W. Schulz ◽  
Yannis Kallinderis

A generalized numerical method for solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in three-dimensions has been developed. This solution methodology allows for the accurate prediction of the hydrodynamic loads on offshore structures, which is then combined with a rigid body structural response to address the flow-structure coupling which is often present in offshore applications. Validation results using this method are first presented for fixed structures which compare the drag coefficients of sphere and cylinder geometries to experimental measurements over a range of subcritical Reynolds numbers. Additional fixed structure results are then presented which explore the influence of aspect ratio effects on the lift and drag coefficients of a bare circular cylinder. Finally, the spanwise flow variations between a fixed and freely vibrating cylindrical structure are compared to demonstrate the ability of the flow-structure method to correctly predict correlation length increases for a vibrating structure. [S0892-7219(00)00904-3]


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