Numerical Investigation of an Offshore Oscillating Water Column

摘要

In this study, a Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) was used to investigate the flowfield of an offshore Oscillating Water Column (OWC). An inviscid solution coupled to the Volume of Fluid method was carried out using ANSYSTM Fluent to simulate six different offshore OWC configurations. The waterside chamber angle, θ1, shoreside chamber angle, θ2, and immersion extension depth d, were varied to evaluate their effect on pneumatic power and efficiency. It was determined that configuration parameters with θ1 = 45o, θ2 = 90o and d = 0 m produced the highest power with an efficiency of 23.1%; results showed that this case had a higher static pressure inside the duct which was the predominant reason for a higher pneumatic power. The cases with an additional extension into the water, d, was found to reduce the pneumatic power when compared to a similar case without an extension.