Abstract
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based numerical wave tanks
(NWTs) can provide valuable insight into the hydrodynamic performance of wave energy converters (WECs). Being able to capture hydrodynamic non-linearities, CFD-based NWTs (CNWTs) allow the analysis
of WECs over a wide range of test conditions, such as sea states, power
take-off control settings and model scale. The capabilities of a CNWT are
exploited in this paper, which aims at the analysis of the scaling effects
of two moored, point-absorber type WECs, exposed to focused waves.
To this end, three different scales are considered: 1:1, 1:10 and 1:10PWT.
The latter, 1:10PWT scale, refers to the typical scale used in physical wave
tanke (PWTs), complying with Froude similitude, but violating Reynolds
similitude. In the 1:10 scale model, fluid viscosity is scaled, inline with
the geometrical properties, thereby achieving both Froude and Reynolds
similitude. From the results, average differences between the three considered scales of around 5% have been observed, and the overall biggest
sensitivity to scale effects can be found in the surge and pitch degree of
freedom.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Proceedings of the 29th (2019) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Edition | 29 |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2019 |
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Keywords
- Wave Energy, CCP-WSI Blind Test, Impulse wave maker, CFD, numerical wave tank, OpenFOAM, Scaling
Cite this
Windt, C., Ringwood, J. V., Davidson, J., & Schmitt, P. (2019). Contribution to the CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 3: Analysis of scaling effects of moored point-absorber wave energy converters in a CFD-based numerical wave tank. In The Proceedings of the 29th (2019) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference (29 ed.)