Hydrodynamic Analysis of Oscillating Water Column Using CFD Code

Oscillating water Column (OWC) methods for power extraction from the oceans and sea waves have been actively investigated for quite a number of years but there is still much work to do in this promising area of wet renewable energy source. In the past, most of the OWC installations have been shore based, thus; a move toward the use of near and off-shore buoys is taken into consideration. Thereby the extension of the predictive capabilities to cover these installations is highly desirable. Hence, the use of commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes for this type of application is relatively novel and offers great modelling promises. Therefore, the paper presentation of hydrodynamic analysis of OWC using CFD code is a way forward in analyzing the effectiveness of OWC for power generation. The CFD simulation code has the proficiency in the prediction of hydrodynamics analysis results in the OWC device. Thus, it is used to generate pneumatic pressure results, air flow velocities and volume fraction results at different vent diameters. A summarized result confirms 0.8m vent diameter opening of OWC construction for effective power production. Also, a wave height ratio of 0.238 with 1.7m water depth yields a maximum hydrodynamic efficiency of 45.57%. This is an indication that water depth is one of the controlling factors for the production of high magnitude of wave which is an influencing characteristics of the turbine efficiency of the OWC device. Therefore, the consideration of offshore OWC at a reasonable water depth in the nearby seas and oceans will generate effective power supply to support a nation's power grid for proficient consumers.