Numerical Analysis of Wave Energy Extraction Performance According to the Body Shape and Scale of the Breakwater-integrated Sloped OWC

Abstract

Research on the development of marine renewable energy is actively in progress. Various studies are being conducted on the development of wave energy converters. In this study, a numerical analysis of wave-energy extraction performance was performed according to the body shape and scale of the sloped oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter (WEC), which can be connected with the breakwater. The sloped OWC WEC was modeled in the time domain using a two-dimensional fully nonlinear numerical wave tank. The nonlinear free surface condition in the chamber was derived to represent the pneumatic pressure owing to the wave column motion and viscous energy loss at the chamber entrance. The free surface elevations in the sloped chamber were calculated at various incident wave periods. For verification, the results were compared with the 1:20 scaled model test. The maximum wave energy extraction was estimated with a pneumatic damping coefficient. To calculate the energy extraction of the actual size WEC, OWC models approximately 20 times larger than the scale model were calculated, and the viscous damping coefficient according to each size was predicted and applied. It was verified that the energy, owing to the airflow in the chamber, increased as the incident wave period increased, and the maximum efficiency of energy extraction was approximately 40% of the incident wave energy. Under the given incident wave conditions, the maximum extractable wave power at a chamber length of 5 m and a skirt draft of 2 m was approximately 4.59 kW/m.

Keywords

• sloped oscillating water column
• wave energy converter
• numerical wave tank
• boundary element method
• wave energy extraction