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Underwater geometrical impact on the hydrodynamic performance of an offshore oscillating water column-wave energy converter
Citation
Elhanafi, A and Fleming, A and MacFarlane, G and Leong, Z, Underwater geometrical impact on the hydrodynamic performance of an offshore oscillating water column-wave energy converter, Renewable Energy, 105 pp. 209-231. ISSN 0960-1481 (2017) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
DOI: doi:10.1016/j.renene.2016.12.039
Abstract
Understanding the hydrodynamic performance of offshore Oscillating Water Column (OWC) devices is essential for assisting the development and optimization processes. The chamber underwater geometry is one of the paramount design aspects that strongly affect the wave–OWC interactions. This paper utilizes a well–validated two–dimensional, fully nonlinear Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to investigate the impact the underwater front and rear lips have on the hydrodynamic performance of an offshore stationary OWC. An extensive campaign of numerical simulations is performed to discover the relevance of the front and rear lip submergence and thickness to OWC performance. The key finding is that the overall hydrodynamic efficiency can be significantly improved over a broad frequency bandwidth by selecting suitable values for both the submergence ratio of asymmetric lips and the lip thickness. The device that is capable of absorbing a large amount of the incoming wave energy provides the maximum power extraction efficiency and the maximum energy losses. The optimal combination achieved a peak efficiency exceeding 0.79, which represents a massive enhancement over more simplistic, but commonly accepted, geometries that returned peak efficiencies of approximately 0.30.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | offshore oscillating water column, OWC, wave energy, underwater geometry, numerical wave tank, CFD |
Research Division: | Engineering |
Research Group: | Maritime engineering |
Research Field: | Ocean engineering |
Objective Division: | Energy |
Objective Group: | Renewable energy |
Objective Field: | Wave energy |
UTAS Author: | Elhanafi, A (Dr Ahmed Elhanafi) |
UTAS Author: | Fleming, A (Dr Alan Fleming) |
UTAS Author: | MacFarlane, G (Associate Professor Gregor MacFarlane) |
UTAS Author: | Leong, Z (Dr Zhi Leong) |
ID Code: | 114324 |
Year Published: | 2017 (online first 2016) |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 46 |
Deposited By: | NC Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics |
Deposited On: | 2017-02-11 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-06 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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