CONSTRUCTAL DESIGN APPLIED TO THE GEOMETRIC OPTIMIZATION OF THE HYDROPNEUMATIC CHAMBER DIMENSIONS OF AN OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN WAVE ENERGY DEVICE

L. O. De Oliveira, P. R. F. Teixeira, E. D. Dos Santos, L. A. Isoldi

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the operating performance of an Onshore Oscillating Water Column (OWC) converter submitted to a typical southern Brazilian coast wave. The numerical modelling has been performed using the FLUENT CFD code based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM). The mixture water-air flow is considered to be two-dimensional, laminar and unsteady. The Constructal Design has been applied in order to determine the optimum dimensions of the air chamber of the OWC device. The optimization purpose is to investigate the <i>H</i>₁/<i>L</i>₁ ratio that reaches the highest power extracted from the device.

Keywords

OWC, Wave Energy, Constructal Design, FLUENT

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DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC15 - Experimental Mechanics

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