Practical Simulation of Oscillating Water Column Chamber for Wave Energy Conversion

Abstract

Oscillating water column (OWC) device has been widely employed in the wave energy conversion. In the present paper, a numerical wave tank (NWT) using two-phase volume of fluid (VOF) model is utilized to simulate the generation and propagation of incident regular waves, and water column oscillation inside the chamber. The NWT consists of the continuity equation, the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, and the two-phase VOF functions. The standard k-ϵ turbulence model, the finite volume method, NITA-PISO algorithm, and dynamic mesh technique are employed to generate 2 Dimensional (2D) regular waves. The numerical results are compared and validated with corresponding experimental data. Effects of incident wave conditions and several structure parameters on the operating performance of OWC chamber are investigated numerically.

Keywords:

• Numerical wave tank
• Operating performance
• Oscillating water column
• Wave energy

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50909089 and 40876047), National High Technology Research and Development Program(“863” Program) of China (Grant No. 2009AA05Z427), and Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Korea Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and all the support is gratefully acknowledged by the authors.