scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF A NUMERICAL MODEL FOR THE STUDY OF AN OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN DEVICE CONSIDERING AN IMPULSE TURBINE

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
A. L. dos Santos ◽  
L. A. Isoldi ◽  
L. A. O. Rocha ◽  
M. N. Gomes ◽  
R. S. Viera ◽  
...  

The present work brings a numerical study of an energy conversion device which takes energy from the waves through an oscillating water column (OWC), considering an impulse turbine with rotation in the chimney region through the implementation of a movable mesh model. More precisely, a turbulent, transient and incompressible air flow is numerically simulated in a two-dimensional domain, which mimics an OWC device chamber. The objectives are the verification of the numerical model with movable mesh of the impulse turbine in the free domain from the comparison with the literature and, later, the study of the impulse turbine inserted in the geometry of the OWC device. In order to perform the numerical simulation on the generated domains, the Finite Volume Method (FVM) is used to solve the mass and momentum conservation equations. For the closure of the turbulence, the URANS (Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) model k-ω SST is used. To verify the numerical model employed, drag coefficients, lift, torque and power are obtained and compared with studies in the literature. The simulations are performed considering a flow with a Reynolds number of ReD = 867,000, air as the working fluid and a tip speed ratio of λ = 2. For the verification case, coefficients similar to those previously predicted in the literature were obtained. For the case where the OWC device was inserted it was possible to observe an intensification of the field of velocities in the turbine region, which led to an augmentation in the magnitude of all coefficients investigated (drag, lift, torque and power). For the case studied with the tip velocity ratio λ = 2, results indicated that power coefficient was augmented, indicating that the insertion of the turbine in a closed enclosure can benefit the energy conversion in an OWC device.

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuyuki Nishi ◽  
Terumi Inagaki ◽  
Kaoru Okubo ◽  
Norio Kikuchi

We propose a new type of portable hydraulic turbine that uses the kinetic energy of flow in open channels. The turbine comprises a runner with an appended collection device that includes a diffuser section in an attempt to improve the output by catching and accelerating the flow. With such turbines, the performance of the collection device, and a composite body comprising the runner and collection device were studied using numerical analysis. Among four stand-alone collection devices, the inlet velocity ratio was most improved by the collection device featuring an inlet nozzle and brim. The inlet velocity ratio of the composite body was significantly lower than that of the stand-alone collection device, owing to the resistance of the runner itself, the decreased diffuser pressure recovery coefficient, and the increased backpressure coefficient. However, at the maximum output tip speed ratio, the inlet velocity ratio and the loading coefficient were approximately 31% and 22% higher, respectively, for the composite body than for the isolated runner. In particular, the input power coefficient significantly increased (by approximately 2.76 times) owing to the increase in the inlet velocity ratio. Verification tests were also conducted in a real canal to establish the actual effectiveness of the turbine.


Author(s):  
Olubunmi Popoola ◽  
Ayobami Bamgbade ◽  
Yiding Cao

An effective design option for a cooling system is to use a two-phase pumped cooling loop to simultaneously satisfy the temperature uniformity and high heat flux requirements. A reciprocating-mechanism driven heat loop (RMDHL) is a novel heat transfer device that could attain a high heat transfer rate through a reciprocating flow of the two-phase working fluid inside the heat transfer device. Although the device has been tested and validated experimentally, analytical or numerical study has not been undertaken to understand its working mechanism and provide guidance for the device design. The objective of this paper is to develop a numerical model for the RMDHL to predict its operational performance under different working conditions. The developed numerical model has been successfully validated by the existing experimental data and will provide a powerful tool for the design and performance optimization of future RMDHLs. The study also reveals that the maximum velocity in the flow occurs near the wall rather than at the center of the pipe, as in the case of unidirectional steady flow. This higher velocity near the wall may help to explain the enhanced heat transfer of an RMDHL.


2016 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 533-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Liu (刘臻) ◽  
Y. Cui(崔莹) ◽  
K.W. Kim(金吉元) ◽  
H.D. Shi(史宏达)

An oscillating water column (OWC) extracts the power of waves by trapping air above a water column. This trapped air is compressed and decompressed by the wave action flow inside a turbine power to the mechanical power during process, and it is important as the turbines are expected to operate in oscillating and reversing flows over a wide range of conditions. The objectives of this study are to determine and analyze the type of radial impulse turbine of OWC and to optimize the performance of a radial impulse turbine for OWC by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). This requires a comprehensive investigation on turbine configuration, turbine efficiency, OWC integration, and turbine operation with respect to climate condition. The outcome of this study to settle the main drawbacks of radial turbine namely lower peak efficiency and damping on OWC can be considered. Later, these problems will be further study to identify the behavior of the airflow through the machine, sources of energy loss, and impact of different parameters on the turbine performance.


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