Numerical Analysis including Pressure Drop in Oscillating Water Column Device

Abstract

The wave energy conversion into electricity has been increasingly studied in the last years. There are several proposed converters. Among them, the oscillatingwater column (OWC) device has been widespread evaluated in literature. In this context, the main goal of this work was to perform a comparison between two kinds of physical constraints in the chimney of the OWC device, aiming to represent numerically the pressure drop imposed by the turbine on the air flow inside the OWC. To do so, the conservation equations of mass,momentumand one equation for the transport of volumetric fraction were solved with the finite volume method (FVM). To tackle thewater-air interaction, the multiphase model volume of fluid (VOF)was used. Initially, an asymmetric constraint inserted in chimney duct was reproduced and investigated. Subsequently, a second strategywas proposed,where a symmetric physical constraint with an elliptical shapewas analyzed. Itwas thus possible to establish a strategy to reproduce the pressure drop in OWC devices caused by the presence of the turbine, as well as to generate its characteristic curve.

Keywords

• Oscillating Water Column (OWC)
• Numerical Modeling
• Volume of Fluid (VOF)
• Pressure Drop
• Turbine