Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Validation of simulated wave energy converter responses to focused waves

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Engineering and Computational Mechanics
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Focused waves are increasingly used as a design method to predict extreme loads for offshore structures, such as wave energy converters (WECs). However, the ability of computational methods to accurately simulate the prescribed focused waves and resulting wave structure interactions is not well validated. This study uses two computational fluid dynamic methods, WEC-Sim and STAR-CCM+, to evaluate the responses of two taut-moored WEC-like buoys to three different focused waves. WEC-Sim is a computationally efficient, mid-fidelity model, based on linearised potential flow theory. In contrast, STAR-CCM+ is a high-fidelity, three-dimensional, unsteady, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes-based model. The two buoy geometries considered are a hemispherical-bottom cylinder and a truncated cylinder with a cylindrical moon pool. Three prescribed focused waves are generated in both codes, and the simulated displacements and mooring loads are obtained for each of the hydrodynamic bodies. The resulting STAR-CCM+ generated focused waves have approximately the same accuracy, in comparison with the analytic solution, as experimentally generated focused waves. The WEC-Sim simulated responses, when using viscous coefficients tuned to the measured displacements, are, on average, within 11.5% of experimentally measured values, whereas the STAR-CCM+ simulated responses are, on average, within 14.2% of the experimental values.
Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Water Power Technologies Office (EE-4W)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1774818
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--5700-75662; MainId:6731; UUID:a68bd00c-2520-ea11-9c2a-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:18516
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Engineering and Computational Mechanics, Journal Name: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Engineering and Computational Mechanics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 174; ISSN 1755-0777
Publisher:
ICE PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (13)

CFD design-load analysis of a two-body wave energy converter journal April 2019
A procedure for the estimation of the numerical uncertainty of CFD calculations based on grid refinement studies journal April 2014
Numerical and experimental investigations into the application of response conditioned waves for long-term nonlinear analyses journal July 2009
Survivability of wave energy converters using CFD journal August 2017
Ringing Analysis of a Vertical Cylinder by Euler Overlay Method
  • Kim, Jang; O’Sullivan, Jim; Read, Alex
  • ASME 2012 31st International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Volume 4: Offshore Geotechnics; Ronald W. Yeung Honoring Symposium on Offshore and Ship Hydrodynamics https://doi.org/10.1115/OMAE2012-84091
conference August 2013
Implementing Nonlinear Buoyancy and Excitation Forces in the WEC-Sim Wave Energy Converter Modeling Tool
  • Lawson, Michael; Yu, Yi-Hsiang; Nelessen, Adam
  • ASME 2014 33rd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Volume 9B: Ocean Renewable Energy https://doi.org/10.1115/OMAE2014-24445
conference October 2014
Application of the Most Likely Extreme Response Method for Wave Energy Converters
  • Quon, Eliot; Platt, Andrew; Yu, Yi-Hsiang
  • ASME 2016 35th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Volume 6: Ocean Space Utilization; Ocean Renewable Energy https://doi.org/10.1115/OMAE2016-54751
conference October 2016
Design Load Analysis for Wave Energy Converters
  • van Rij, Jennifer; Yu, Yi-Hsiang; Coe, Ryan G.
  • ASME 2018 37th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Volume 10: Ocean Renewable Energy https://doi.org/10.1115/OMAE2018-78178
conference September 2018
Focused wave interactions with floating structures: a blind comparative study
  • Ransley, Edward J.; Brown, Scott A.; Hann, Martyn
  • Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering and Computational Mechanics, Vol. 174, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1680/jencm.20.00006
journal March 2021
A Blind Comparative Study of Focused Wave Interactions with a Fixed FPSO-like Structure (CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 1) journal June 2019
A Blind Comparative Study of Focused Wave Interactions with Floating Structures (CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 3) journal March 2020
A Wave Energy Converter Design Load Case Study journal July 2019
Methods for Calculating Forces Produced by Irregular Waves conference May 1969

Similar Records

Validation of Simulated Wave Energy Converter Responses to Focused Waves for CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 2: Preprint
Conference · Wed Oct 30 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · OSTI ID:1573194
Focused wave interactions with floating structures: a blind comparative study
Journal Article · Sun Feb 28 19:00:00 EST 2021 · Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Engineering and Computational Mechanics · OSTI ID:1760660
A Wave Energy Converter Design Load Case Study
Journal Article · Mon Jul 29 20:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Marine Science and Engineering · OSTI ID:1546805

Related Subjects

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER
numerical modeling
offshore engineering
renewable energy
waves and wave loading