Numerical Simulation and Solution Verification of an Overtopping Wave Energy Converter

Dante Barbosa¹; Daniel dos Santos¹; Marcelo Goulart¹; Jeferson Souza¹; Otávio Carvalho¹; Elizaldo dos Santos¹; Liércio Isoldi¹

¹ FURG

Baixar PDF doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2015-0500

Resumo

This study refers to numerical simulation and solution verification of an equipment used to convert ocean wave energy to electrical energy. This equipment is an overtopping device, which forces the break of the wave over a ramp storing water in a reservoir to feed a set of low head turbines. Present paper contributes to the current state of art of ocean wave energy converters (OWECs) pointing OpenFOAM as a considerable tool to predict ocean wave comportment by comparing its results with ANSYS FLUENT ones. Therefore, it has been used the finite volume method applying volume of fluid methodology, modeling the problem as an unsteady 2D multiphase (air and water) flow. It has been estimated the total mass inside the reservoir of seven different ramp configurations (H/L) for a constant depth (5 m). Regardless of the differences between these software, this study presents the simultaneity of water overtopping for both solutions and similar trend lines regarding water storage in respect to H/L.

Palavras-chave: Ocean energy; Renewable energy; Multiphase flow; VOF; openFOAM