A numerical study on the dynamic behavior of a floating wave energy converter

Abstract

The improvement of wave simulation techniques in numerical tanks represents the key factor in ocean engineering development to save time and effort in research concerned with wave energy conversion. The multiplicity of renewable energy sources represents the biggest challenge for environmental scientists and engineers. Wave energy represents one of the major sources of renewable energy. For this purpose, the present thesis introduces a numerical simulation method to generate both regular and irregular waves using a Flap-Type wavemaker. A 2D numerical wave tank model is constructed with a Numerical Beach technique, and the independence of the numerical beach slope is tested to reduce the wave reflections. The different governing parameters of the Flap type wavemaker were studied such as periodic time dependency and length of the flapping stroke. The linear wave generated was validated against the wavemaker theory WMT, and the numerical results agreed with WMT. The Pierson-Moskowitz model is used to generate irregular waves with different frequencies and amplitudes. The numerical model succeeded to generate irregular waves which were validated against published experimental data and with the Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum model using Fourier expansion theory in the frequency domain. Useful results are presented in this research based on numerical simulation to understand the characteristics of the waves. This research produces a full guide to generating both regular and irregular waves numerically using the high-performance ANSYS-CFX software to solve the 2D Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Equation (URANS).