A Study of An Oscillating Water Column (OWC) to Harvest Wave Energy Using FLUENT Software

Oscillating water column (OWC) is the technology for harnessing the motion
of ocean or sea waves as they push an air pocket up and down behind a breakwater,
turning a turbine and drives a generator to produce electricity. The purpose of this
project are to numerically and experimentally study the OWC design, to design and
develop an OWC wave generator and investigates its application on offshore
structures. The scope of the project is focuses on what is happening inside air
chamber where it will involve various types of fluid flow patterns and pressure
inside the air chamber. In order to achieve the objectives, Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate the flow patterns inside the air chamber. The
software used for the CFD analysis are FLUENT and GAMBIT, where the operating
conditions and other types of properties can be varied easily to evaluate the flow rate
of the air exits and retreat backs to the air chamber and the pressure inside it. Finally,
it will lead to design changes that improve the effectiveness of the OWC. There 12
designs of OWC model that have been simulated and studied. The best possible
ways to optimize the model are to use 40o of inclined angle or arc radius, increase the
height of the entrance inlet, increase the length of the air chamber, reduce the height
of the air chamber or change the location of the pipe connected to the air turbine
from top to the side of the air chamber. However, since all parameters are connected
and related to each other, the best possible design need to be further studies.