Anderlini, E

Benites-Munoz, D

Huang, L

Thomas, G

English

UCL Discovery

Realistic Simulation of an Oscillating Wave Surge ConverterDaniela Benites-Munoz1, Luofeng Huang∗, Enrico Anderlini, Giles ThomasDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University College London1First author: ucemben@ucl.ac.uk; ∗corresponding author: ucemlhu@ucl.ac.ukBackgroundTo meet new energy targets, the placement of wave en-ergy devices is a primary approach, as waves are com-pletely free of emission and possess high energy den-sity compared with other renewable sources. Oscillat-ing Wave Surge Converter (OWSC) is one of the mostpopular device type, with a flap rotating around a fixedhinge, tally with the periodic feature of wave motions, asshown in Figure 1. Thus OWSC has proved to capturewave energy with promising convert efficiency and itsdesign becomes of great research interest.Fig 1: Illustration of an OWSC (Credit: Aquamarine Power).Numerical ApproachIn this work, OpenFOAM has been applied to simulatethe operation of an OWSC, by which the aim is to studythe optimal device dimensions against various waveconditions, as well as providing power and fatigue es-timates for the device. As presented in Figure 2, the in-teraction process is replicated with high fidelity, in whichregular waves are generated from the left hand side andpropagate towards the right hand side, and the largedisplacement of the device is handled by the oversetmesh method. By comparison with validation experi-ments, the simulation is found to accurately predict therotation angle at all phases of an entire period.Fig 2: Simulation view of wave interaction with an OWSC: from (a)maximal forward to (i) maximal backward.Whilst the rotation amplitude and frequency of anOWSC varies with specific wave conditions, the actualusable power is instead governed by the Power TakenOff (PTO) connected on the device, which is not lin-ear with the motion amplitude or frequency. In such acontext, this work has implemented a PTO model withthe OpenFOAM model to be able to estimate the actualpower of a device in a given wave condition. This signi-fies that the current work is not only replicating the fluidfield and structural movement, but also providing a toolthat can evaluate the energy efficiency thus supportingthe optimisation of OWSC in a realistic way.Discussion and future workCompared with experimental methods, the present ap-proach has the following advantages:•Convenient to assess the performance of a device invarious wave conditions; easy to edit device dimen-sion to investigate the most suitable geometry.•Able to map out pressure distribution on the whole de-vice during a wave period, thus to find out critical ar-eas and suggest local strengthening.•Able to obtain the surrounding flow field, as shown inFigure 3 - OWSCs are normally arranged in arrays,the wave flow associated with one OWSC can affectthe efficiency of its neighbour devices.Intended future work is (a) to conduct extensive simu-lations to build up the response surface of a device invariable wave conditions (b) place multiple devices ina simulation to investigate the interaction between nearOWSCs and then suggest arrangement strategies.Fig 3: Free surface elevation when the flap is at different locations:(a) maximal forward; (b) upright; (c) maximal backward.References:Benites Munoz, D., Huang, L. and Thomas, G., 2019, July. The in-teraction of cnoidal waves with oscillating wave surge energy con-verters. The 14th OpenFOAM Workshop.Benites Munoz, D., Huang, L., Anderlini, E., Marı́n-López, J. andThomas, G., 2020, October. Simulation of the wave evolution andpower capture of an oscillating wave surge converter. The 30thInternational Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE).1

Realistic Simulation of an Oscillating Wave Surge Converter

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Realistic Simulation of an Oscillating Wave Surge Converter

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