• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.513-528
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• 2013

A floating Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy converter, a Backward Bent Duct Buoy (BBDB), was simulated using a state-of-the-art, two-dimensional, fully-nonlinear Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) technique. The hydrodynamic performance of the floating OWC device was evaluated in the time domain. The acceleration potential method, with a full-updated kernel matrix calculation associated with a mode decomposition scheme, was implemented to obtain accurate estimates of the hydrodynamic force and displacement of a freely floating BBDB. The developed NWT was based on the potential theory and the boundary element method with constant panels on the boundaries. The mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian (MEL) approach was employed to capture the nonlinear free surfaces inside the chamber that interacted with a pneumatic pressure, induced by the time-varying airflow velocity at the air duct. A special viscous damping was applied to the chamber free surface to represent the viscous energy loss due to the BBDB's shape and motions. The viscous damping coefficient was properly selected using a comparison of the experimental data. The calculated surface elevation, inside and outside the chamber, with a tuned viscous damping correlated reasonably well with the experimental data for various incident wave conditions. The conservation of the total wave energy in the computational domain was confirmed over the entire range of wave frequencies.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2010

Oscillating Water Column is one of the most widely used converting systems all over the world. The operating performance is influenced by the efficiencies of the two converting stages in the OWC chamber-turbine integrated system. In order to study the effects of the pressure drop induced by the air turbine, the experiments using the impulse turbine and the orifice device are carried out in the wave simulator test rig. The numerical simulation utilizing the orifice and porous media modules is calculated and validated by the corresponding experimental data. The numerical wave tank based on the two-phase VOF model embedded with the above modules is employed to investigate the wave elevation, pressure variation inside the chamber and the air flow velocity in the duct. The effects of the air turbine on the integrated system and interaction among the wave elevation, pressure and air flow velocities variations are investigated, which demonstrates that the present numerical model are more accurate to be employed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.212-219
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• 2004

The effect of frequency and amplitude of the OWC (Oscillating Water Column) motion on the nonlinear reaction forces in an air duct arc studied experimentally. Experimental OWC model is idealized as a simple circular cylinder with an orifice type air duct located at the middle of the top rid. Reaction forces due to forced heave oscillation are measured and analyzed. By subtracting the effect of inertia forces and restoring forces, pneumatic damping force and added spring force are deduced. The effects of the frequency and amplitude of the heave motion are discussed. Also, the effects of solidity of the duct on the reaction forces are discussed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2008

A numerical investigation is made on the effects of the location and shape of the front wall of an OWC(Oscillating Water Column) chamber on the hydroelastic response of a VLFS. Most of the studies on the effects of an OWC chamber on the response of a VLFS have assumed the location of the OWC chamber to be at the front of the VLFS. In the present study, an OWC-chamber is introduced at an arbitrary position in relation to a VLFS to determine the influence of the location and shape of the OWC chamber on the hydroelastic response of the VLFS. A finite element method is adopted as a numerical scheme for the fluid domain. or the finite element method, combined with a mode superposition method, is applied in order to consider the change of mass and stiffness The OWC chamber in a piecewise constant manner. or the facilitated anefficient analysis of The hydroelastic response of the VLFS, as well as the easy modeling of different shape and material properties for the structure. Reduction of hydroelastic response of the VLFS is investigated for various locations and front wall shapes of the owe chamber.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.182-188
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• 2014

In an oscillating water column (OWC)-type wave energy conversion system, the performance of the OWC chamber depends on the chamber shape, as well as the incident wave direction and pressure drop produced by the turbine. Although the previous studies on OWC chambers have focused on wave absorbing performance in ideal operating conditions, incident waves do not always arrive normally to the OWC chamber in real sea conditions, especially in fixed devices. The present study deals with experiments and numerical calculations to investigate the effects of wave direction on the performance of the OWC chamber. The experiments were carried out in a three-dimensional wave basin for five different wave directions, including the effect of turbine using the corresponding orifice. The wave elevation inside the chamber was measured at the center point under various incident wave conditions. The numerical study was conducted by using a numerical wave tank-based volume-of-fluid model to compare the results with experimental data and to reveal the detailed flows around the chamber.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.270-279
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• 2022

In this study, numerical analysis and experiments were performed to analyze the viscous damping effect according to the shape of the chamber skirt of the breakwater-linked inclined oscillating water column wave energy converter. Experiments were conducted using a two-dimensional mini wave tank and verified by comparing the results of a computational fluid dynamics numerical analysis. Pointed and rounded skirts were modeled to compare the effect of viscous damping when incident waves enter the chamber, and the difference in the displacement of the water surface in the chamber was compared according to the wave period for the two skirt shapes. The wave elevation in the chamber in the rounded-skirt condition was larger than the pointed-skirt condition in all wave periods, which was approximately 47% greater at 0.9 s of the incident wave period. Therefore, extracting the maximum energy through the optimal orifice is possible while minimizing the energy attenuation in the rounded-skirt condition.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.465-468
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• 2006

The wave power absorbing performance of a bottom-mounted oscillating water column (OWC) chamber structure is studied. The potential problem inside the chamber is solved by making use of the Green integral equation associated with the Rankine Green function while the outer problem with the Kelvin Green function taking account of fluctuating air pressure in the air chamber. The absorbed wave power, wave elevation inside the chamber, reflection coefficient and wave loads are calculated for various values of a parameter related to the fluctuating air pressure. The present methods can also be used for the design of a OWC breakwater which can absorb and reflect the incoming wave energy at the same time.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.11-17
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• 2005

The effect of frequency and amplitude of the OWC (Oscillating Water Column) motion on the nonlinear reaction forces in an air duct are studied experimentally. Experimental owe model is idealized as a simple circular cylinder with an orifice type air duct located at the middle oj the top rid. Reaction forces due to forced heave oscillation are measured and analyzed. By subtracting the effect of inertia forces and restoring forces, pneumatic damping force and added spring force are deduced. The effects of the frequency and amplitude of the heave motion are discussed. Also, the effects of solidity of the duct on the reaction forces are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.345-357
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• 2011

Recently, as part of diversifying energy sources and earth environmental issues, technology development of new renewable energy using wave energy is actively promoted and commercialized around Europe and Japan etc. In particular, OWC(Oscillating Water Column) wave power generation system using air flow induced by vertical movement of the water surface by waves in an air-chamber within caisson is known as the most efficient wave energy absorption device and therefore, is one of the wave power generation apparatus the closest to commercialization. This study examines air flow velocity, which operates turbine(Wells turbine) directly in oscillating water column type wave power generation structure from two-and three-dimensional numerical experiments and discusses optimal shape of oscillating water column type wave power generation structure by estimating the maximum flow rate of air according to change in shape. The three-dimensional numerical wave flume was applied in interpretation for this study which is the model for the immiscible two-phase flow based on the Navier-Stokes Equation. From this, it turned out that size of optimal shape appears differently according to the incident wave period and air flow is maximized at the period where minimum reflection ratio occurs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.173-180
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• 2007

Oscillating wave amplitude in a bottom-mounted OWC chamber designed for wave energy converter is investigated by applying characteristic wave conditions in Korean coastal water. The effects of shape parameters of OWC chamber in a view of wave energy absorbing capability are analyzed. Both experimental and numerical approaches are adopted and their results are compared to optimize the shape parameters which can result in a maximum power production under given wave distribution. The experiment was carried out in a wave flume under 2-D assumption of OWC chamber. The numerical scheme employed a hybrid Green integral equation which adopts the Rankine Green function inside chamber to take account of fluctuating air pressure, while it uses the Kelvin Green function in outer domain. Air duct diameter, chamber width, and submerged depths of front skirt and back wall of chamber changes the magnitude and peak frequency of wave absorption significantly.