Design selection and geometry in OWC wave energy converters for performance
Although oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converters are arguably one of the most studied technologies, it is not clear which chamber geometry, among all of the available alternatives, would provide the best performance at a site of interest. In this work, a numerical model based on the Na...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC) |
| Repositorio: | Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:minerva.usc.gal:10347/44176 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://hdl.handle.net/10347/44176 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Wave energy Wave energy converter WEC Oscillating water column OWC |
| Resumo: | Although oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converters are arguably one of the most studied technologies, it is not clear which chamber geometry, among all of the available alternatives, would provide the best performance at a site of interest. In this work, a numerical model based on the Navier-Stokes equations for two compressible fluids, using a volume-of-fluid interface-capturing approach, is implemented to determine the best performing OWC geometry in a case study off the Port of Vigo (NW Spain). Four general shapes of OWC are analyzed: classic, stepped-bottom, U-shaped and L-shaped, and geometrical variants are investigated. In total, 18 chamber geometries are studied, considering the same turbine geometry in all of them. It was found that the U-shaped and L-shaped designs are the most easily tuned to resonate at a period of interest. Of these two, the L-shaped performs better. The best performance is achieved for an L-shaped OWC design with a shallow entrance, a high horizontal chamber duct and a wide vertical duct, for which a maximum capture-width ratio of 71.6% was achieved. |
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