Improving the power outputs of oscillating water column wave energy converters by optimizing the geometrical parameters

Abstract

There are currently various methods for extracting energy and generating electricity from wave energy, one of the simplest and most practical methods is the use of water oscillating column (OWC). The water oscillating column of our study on the OWC has a chamber with a front wall that is oriented against the direction of the current. In this research, a two-dimensional numerical study on the geometric optimization of an ocean wave energy converter (WEC) to electrical energy is presented. The main factor is OWC. To do this, the geometric parameter of the OWC chamber length was optimized, while the other parameters (height to length ratio) were kept constant. In this study, a regular wave with dimensions on a laboratory scale was considered. To determine the optimal energy converter parameter based on environmental parameters (water depth, wave period and altitude), first by using PSO meta-innovation algorithm and coding in MATLAB software to create an algorithm to study and present the most optimal parameters And we did it at different depths. The results of this study indicate the very appropriate answers of the proposed PSO algorithm to determine the parameter of the optimal operating chamber of the wave oscillator energy converter in comparison with other algorithms. The performance of the designed converter in the obtained optimal state is equal to 54%, which increase in comparison with the research background is a self-confirmation of the results obtained from the determination of the optimal state by the proposed algorithm.

Keywords

• wave energy converter
• owc
• geometric optimization
• pso