Evaluation of 3-D Computational Model of Oscillating Water Column Converter with Constructal Design with Three Degrees of Freedom and Limited Chimney Height

2021 ◽  
Vol 407 ◽  
pp. 128-137
Author(s):  
Vinícius Bloss ◽  
Camila Fernandes Cardozo ◽  
Flávia Schwarz Franceschini Zinani ◽  
Luiz Alberto Oliveira Rocha

Theoretically, ocean waves contain enough mechanical energy to supply the entire world’s demand and, as of late, are seen as a promising source of renewable energy. To this end, several different technologies of Wave Energy Converters (WEC) have been developed such as Oscillating Water Column (OWC) devices. OWCs are characterized by a chamber in which water oscillates inside and out in a movement similar to that of a piston. This movement directs air to a chimney where a turbine is attached to convert mechanical energy. The analysis conducted was based on the Constructive Design Method, in which a numerical study was carried out to obtain the geometric configuration that maximized the conversion of wave energy into mechanical energy. Three degrees of freedom were used: the ratio of height to length of the hydropneumatic chamber (H1/L), the ratio of the height of the chimney to its diameter (H2/d) and the ratio of the width of the hydropneumatic chamber to the width of the wave tank (W/Z). A Design of Experiments (DoE) technique coupled with Central Composite Design (CCD) allowed the simulation of different combinations of degrees of freedom. This allowed the construction of Response Surfaces and correlations for the efficiency of the system depending on the degrees of freedom (width and height of the chamber), as well as the optimization of the system based on the Response Surfaces.

2021 ◽  
Vol 412 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Marla Rodrigues Oliveira ◽  
Elizaldo Domingues Santos ◽  
Liércio André Isoldi ◽  
Luiz Alberto Oliveira Rocha ◽  
Mateus das Neves Gomes

This study is about a two-dimensional numerical analysis of the influence of a ramp in front on an oscillating water column wave energy converter (OWC-WEC). The main purpose was to evaluate, numerically and geometrically, the effect of using a ramp variation in relation to the frontal wall on the hydropneumatic power of the OWC-WEC. The constructal design method was applied for geometric analysis. The problem had a geometric constraint: the area of the ramp (A2) and two degrees of freedom: H2 / L2 (ratio of the height and length of the ramp) and L4 (the distance of the ramp concerning the OWC-WEC front wall). In numerical simulations, the equations of conservation of mass, momentum, and an equation for the transport of volumetric fraction were solved using the finite volume method (FVM). The multiphase model volume of fluid (VOF) was applied for the air-water interaction. Thus, the increase in the H2/L2 ratio resulted in a decrease of the root mean square (RMS) of the available hydropneumatic power (Phyd). By varying the distance L4, the better case was = 6 m and / = 0.025 and the worst case was = 1 m and / = 0.2. The relative difference between the better RMS Phyd = 150.7957 W and the worst Phyd = 73.1164 W reached up to a hundred and six percent.


Author(s):  
Sheng Xu ◽  
K. Rezanejad ◽  
Shan Wang ◽  
J. F. M. Gadelho ◽  
C. Guedes Soares

Abstract A compact mooring system concept is proposed. This novel mooring is composed of submerged buoy and three segments of nylon ropes, which is suitable for the large wave energy converters and wave energy converter array due to its high flexibility and small mooring radius. The performance of this mooring concept was studied experimentally when it was moored to an oscillating water column. The damping of the oscillating water column was modelled by an orifice on top of the chamber. Both regular and irregular head sea wave tests were conducted. In order to study the influence of wave height on system dynamics, two series of regular wave tests with same periods but different wave heights were conducted. An optical tracking system was installed to capture six degrees of freedom motion responses of oscillating water column. The air pressure in the chamber was measured by the air pressure sensor. Two load cells were installed on the top of mooring lines to measure mooring tension time series. Besides, the wave surface elevations inside the chamber were measured by the wave gauges. According to the experimental results, the six degrees of freedom motion responses of floating wave energy converter and mooring tensions are analyzed. Besides, the energy conversion efficiency is evaluated based on the measured data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 396 ◽  
pp. 22-31
Author(s):  
Yuri T.B. Lima ◽  
Mateus das Neves Gomes ◽  
Camila F. Cardozo ◽  
Liércio André Isoldi ◽  
Elizaldo D. Santos ◽  
...  

This paper presents a biphasic two-dimensional numerical study of sea wave energy converters with operating principle being Oscillating Water Column (CAO) devices with two couples chambers. For the study of the geometric optimization, the Constructal Design method is applied in association with the exhaustive search method to determine the geometric arrangement that leads to the greatest hydropneumatic power available. The objective function is the maximization of hydropneumatic power converted by the device. The constraints of the problem are the inflow volumes of the hydropneumatic chamber (VE1, VE2), the total volumes (VT1, VT2) and the thicknesses of the device columns (e1, e3). The degrees of freedom analyzed were H1/L1(ratio between height and length of the hydropneumatic chamber of the first device), H2/L2 (ratio between height and length of the hydropneumatic chamber of the second device), H2 (height of the column dividing the two devices) and e2 (thickness of the column dividing the devices). In the present work the degree of freedom H6 (depth of immersion of the device) is kept constant and equal to H6 = 9.86 m. The Finite Volume Method (FVM) was used in the numerical solution of the equations employed. For the treatment of the interaction between the air and water phases, the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method was applied. The results show that the maximum hydropneumatic power available was 5715.2 W obtained for degrees of freedom H1/L1 = H2/L2 = 0.2613 and e2 = 2.22 m. The case of lower performance has a power value equal to 4818.5 W with degrees of freedom equal to H1/L1 = H2/L2 = 0.2613 and e2 = 0.1 m.


Author(s):  
Chunrong Liu ◽  
Zhenhua Huang ◽  
Adrian Law Wing Keung ◽  
Nan Geng

A desingularized boundary integral equation method (DBIEM) is employed to study the wave energy extraction by an oscillating water column (OWC) device. The method is based on a mixed-Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation. We examine the effects of the relative draught on the efficiency of 2D OWC energy converters. The oscillating air pressure inside the OWC chamber is modeled by assuming that the air is incompressible and the air-turbine mass-flow rate is proportional to the pressure difference (a linear turbine). For shallow draughts the numerical results agree well with available analytical results. The wave-excited seiching inside the extraction chamber is discussed and the variation of extraction efficiency with dimensionless air-chamber width for different immersion depths is reported.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Giorgi ◽  
Rui P. F. Gomes ◽  
Giovanni Bracco ◽  
Giuliana Mattiazzo

Although it is widely accepted that accurate modeling of wave energy converters is essential for effective and reliable design, it is often challenging to define an accurate model which is also fast enough to investigate the design space or to perform extensive sensitivity analysis. In fact, the required accuracy is usually brought by the inclusion of nonlinearities, which are often time-consuming to compute. This paper provides a computationally efficient meshless nonlinear Froude–Krylov model, including nonlinear kinematics and an integral formulation of drag forces in six degrees of freedom, which computes almost in real-time. Moreover, a mooring system model with three lines is included, with each line comprising of an anchor, a jumper, and a clump weight. The mathematical model is used to investigate the highly-nonlinear phenomenon of parametric resonance, which has particularly detrimental effects on the energy conversion performance of the spar-buoy oscillating water column (OWC) device. Furthermore, the sensitivity on changes to jumper and clump-weight masses are discussed. It is found that mean drift and peak loads increase with decreasing line pre-tension, eventually leading to a reduction of the operational region. On the other hand, the line pre-tension does not affect power production efficiency, nor is it able to avoid or significantly limit the severity of parametric instability.


2015 ◽  
Vol 787 ◽  
pp. 8-12
Author(s):  
V.P. Mohandas ◽  
R. Wilbert ◽  
S.S. Saji ◽  
Laiju Lukose

Energy conversion from ocean waves has become the need of the hour in view of the renewable energy awakening occurring all over the world. Energy conversion by Oscillating Water Column (OWC) concept has become an established technology in converting mechanical energy of ocean waves to electrical energy. But the limitations of OWC concept calls for further research and developments to make the technology commercially an attractive one. In this context Boccotti, the Italian scientist advanced the double chamber concept and the implications of the concept still remains to be investigated through model studies. This paper presents the details of a generic study carried out in a physical model device under regular waves.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (01) ◽  
pp. 37-42
Author(s):  
Sigit Arrohman ◽  
Dwi Aries Himawanto

Renewable energy is one of the government's efforts to increase the source of the national electricity supply and reduce fossil energy sources. Indonesia has the potential to develop renewable energy in the fields of ocean waves, sunlight, water, and geothermal. But of all these, the most promising to become renewable energy development opportunities are water energy, geothermal energy and ocean wave energy. Indonesia as an archipelagic country with an area of ​​1,904,556 km2 which consists of; 17,508 islands, 5.8 million km2 of ocean and 81,290 million km of beach length, the potential for marine energy, especially ocean waves, is very potential to be empowered as new and renewable alternative primary energy, especially for power generation. This ocean wave power plant has been widely developed, including: buoy type technology, overtopping devices technology, oscillating water column technology. Oscillating Water Column (OWC) is an alternative technology to convert ocean wave energy using an oscillating water column system. The ocean wave conversion technology of the OWC system was chosen because it is suitable in areas with steep coastal topography and has a wave height value between 0.2 m to 1.19 m and even exceeds so that the electricity generated is greater. OWC technology which will be developed for the territory of Indonesia has several opportunities and challenges. Opportunities and challenges that will be faced include the potential for waves, the application of OWC to waterways in Indonesia, OWC systems, and technology investment for the prospect of long-term energy development in Indonesia.  


Author(s):  
Giacomo Moretti ◽  
Gastone Pietro Papini Rosati ◽  
Marco Alves ◽  
Manuel Grases ◽  
Rocco Vertechy ◽  
...  

In this paper, we present a concept of near/off-shore Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Wave Energy Converter (WEC) that is equipped with a Power Take Off (PTO) unit based on Dielectric Elastomer Generators (DEGs). DEGs are soft/deformable generators with variable capacitance able to directly convert the mechanical energy that is employed for their deformation into electrostatic energy. The proposed WEC is based on an existing tubular collector chamber of an OWC system designed by the company Sendekia, that is combined with an Inflatable Circular Diaphragm (ICD) DEG. This simplified design presents a very reduced number of moving parts showing potentially high efficiency, reliability and noise-free operation. A multi-physics dynamic model of the system is built using time domain linear hydrodynamics coupled with an analytical non-linear electro-hyperelastic model for the DEG-based PTO. The power matrix of the system is calculated for both regular and irregular waves. Some design issues are introduced showing that the electro-elastic response of the DEG provides the system with an additional stiffness that adds up to the hydrostatic stiffness and affects the resonance of the WEC. As a consequence, the geometric shape/dimensions of the OWC chamber and the layout of the DEG diaphragm should be chosen using an integrated procedure aimed at tuning the overall response of the WEC to the spectra a reference wave climate.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dogan Kisacik ◽  
Vasiliki Stratigaki ◽  
Minghao Wu ◽  
Lorenzo Cappietti ◽  
Irene Simonetti ◽  
...  

Floating oscillating water column (OWC) type wave energy converters (WECs), compared to fixed OWC WECs that are installed near the coastline, can be more effective as they are subject to offshore waves before the occurrence of wave dissipation at a nearshore location. The performance of floating OWC WECs has been widely studied using both numerical and experimental methods. However, due to the complexity of fluid–structure interaction of floating OWC WECs, most of the available studies focus on 2D problems with WEC models of limited degrees-of-freedom (DOF) of motion, while 3D mooring effects and multiple-DOF OWC WECs have not been extensively investigated yet under 2D and 3D wave conditions. Therefore, in order to gain a deeper insight into these problems, the present study focuses on wave flume experiments to investigate the motion and mooring performance of a scaled floating OWC WEC model under 2D wave conditions. As a preparatory phase for the present MaRINET2 EsflOWC (efficiency and survivability of floating OWC) project completed at the end of 2017, experiments were also carried out in advance in the large wave flume of Ghent University. The following data were obtained during these experimental campaigns: multiple-DOF OWC WEC motions, mooring line tensions, free surface elevations throughout the wave flume, close to and inside the OWC WEC, change in the air pressure inside the OWC WEC chamber and velocity of the airflow through the vent on top of the model. The tested wave conditions mostly include nonlinear intermediate regular waves. The data obtained at the wave flume of Ghent University, together with the data from the EsflOWC tests at the wave flume of LABIMA, University of Florence, provide a database for numerical validation of research on floating OWC WECs and floating OWC WEC farms or arrays used by researchers worldwide.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document