Evaluation of energy maximising control systemsfor wave energy converters using OpenFOAM

Wave energy conversion is an active field of research, aiming to harness the vast amounts of energy present in ocean waves. An essential development trajectory towards an economically competitive wave energy converter (WEC) requires early device experimentation and refinement using numerical tools. OpenFOAM is proving to be a useful numerical tool for WEC development, being increasingly employed in recent years to simulate and analyse the performance of WECs. This chapter reviews the latest works employing OpenFOAM in the field of wave energy conversion, and then presents the new application, of evaluating energy maximising control systems (EMCSs) for WECs, in an OpenFOAM numerical wave tank (NWT). The advantages of using OpenFOAM for this application are discussed, and implementation details for simulating a controlled WEC in an OpenFOAM NWT are outlined. An illustrative example is given, and results are presented, highlighting the value of evaluating EMCSs for WECs in an OpenFOAM NWT.

[1]  J. Ringwood,et al.  Assessment of Numerical Wave Makers , 2017 .

[2]  John Ringwood,et al.  Implementation of an OpenFOAM Numerical Wave Tank for Wave Energy Experiments , 2015 .

[3]  Edgar Mendoza,et al.  Hydrodynamic behavior of a new wave energy convertor: The Blow-Jet , 2015 .

[4]  Claes Eskilsson,et al.  Coupled mooring analysis for floating wave energy converters using CFD: Formulation and validation , 2016 .

[5]  John V. Ringwood,et al.  Energy-Maximizing Control of Wave-Energy Converters: The Development of Control System Technology to Optimize Their Operation , 2014, IEEE Control Systems.

[6]  John Ringwood,et al.  Nonlinear Hydrodynamic Models for Heaving BuoyWave Energy Converters , 2016 .

[7]  Alison Raby,et al.  RANS-VOF modelling of the Wavestar point absorber , 2017 .

[8]  Javier L. Lara,et al.  Validation of OpenFOAM® for Oscillating Water Column three-dimensional modeling , 2015 .

[9]  Aggelos S. Dimakopoulos,et al.  Conjectures on the Failure of the OWC Breakwater at Mutriku , 2017 .

[10]  James I.R. Blake,et al.  Numerical Simulation of Multi-body Wave Energy Converter , 2015 .

[11]  Irene Simonetti,et al.  Site-specific optimization of an OWC wave energy converter in a Mediterranean area , 2016 .

[12]  A. Babarit,et al.  Theoretical and numerical aspects of the open source BEM solver NEMOH , 2015 .

[13]  J. Falnes.  Ocean Waves and Oscillating Systems: Linear Interactions Including Wave-Energy Extraction , 2002 .

[14]  Peter A. Troch,et al.  Numerical simulation of a single floating point absorber wave energy converter using OpenFOAM , 2016 .

[15]  Irene Simonetti,et al.  3D numerical modelling of oscillating water column wave energy conversion devices: current knowledge and OpenFOAM® implementation , 2015 .

[16]  John Ringwood,et al.  Identification of Nonlinear Excitation Force KernelsUsing Numerical Wave Tank Experiments , 2015 .

[17]  Edward Jack Ransley,et al.  Survivability of Wave Energy Converter and Mooring Coupled System using CFD , 2015 .

[18]  John Ringwood,et al.  Numerical wave tank identification of nonlinear discrete timehydrodynamic models , 2014 .

[19]  D. Causon,et al.  Numerical Simulation of Wave Slamming on a Flap Type Oscillating Wave Energy Device , 2018 .

[20]  Jørgen Fredsøe,et al.  A wave generation toolbox for the open‐source CFD library: OpenFoam® , 2012 .

[21]  Claes Eskilsson,et al.  Wave induced motions of point-absorbers: a hierarchical investigation of hydrodynamic models , 2015 .

[22]  Yi-Hsiang Yu,et al.  Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes simulation of the heave performance of a two-body floating-point absorber wave energy system , 2013 .

[23]  Peter A. Troch,et al.  A Review of the Implicit Motion Solver Algorithm in OpenFOAM® to Simulate a Heaving Buoy , 2015 .

[24]  Pal Schmitt,et al.  Optimising power take-off of an oscillating wave surge converter using high fidelity numerical simulations , 2016 .

[25]  Alison Raby,et al.  Survivability of wave energy converters using CFD , 2017 .

[26]  John V. Ringwood,et al.  Identification of Wave Energy Device Models From Numerical Wave Tank Data—Part 2: Data-Based Model Determination , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.

[27]  A. Traverso,et al.  Off-shore wave energy harvesting: A WEC-microturbine system: Harvesting and storing energy for off-shore applications , 2015, OCEANS 2015 - Genova.

[28]  Ashkan Rafiee,et al.  Numerical Prediction of Extreme Loads on the CETO Wave Energy Converter , 2015 .

[29]  John V. Ringwood,et al.  Identification of Wave Energy Device Models From Numerical Wave Tank Data—Part 1: Numerical Wave Tank Identification Tests , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.

[30]  Deborah Greaves,et al.  Numerical study of fixed Oscillating Water Column with RANS-type two-phase CFD model , 2017 .

[31]  G. Giorgi.  Consistency of Viscous Drag Identification Tests for Wave Energy Applications , 2017 .

[32]  Pal Schmitt,et al.  On the use of OpenFOAM to model Oscillating wave surge converters , 2015 .

[33]  John Ringwood,et al.  Linear parametric hydrodynamic models for ocean wave energy converters identified from numerical wave tank experiments , 2015 .

[35]  Alan Henry,et al.  Determination of Non-linear Damping Coefficients of bottom-hinged Oscillating Wave Surge Converters Using Numerical Free Decay Tests , 2014 .

[36]  Lifen Chen,et al.  Modelling of Marine Renewable Energy , 2015 .

[37]  I. Losada,et al.  Simulating coastal engineering processes with OpenFOAM , 2013 .

[38]  H. Oumeraci,et al.  Numerical Modelling of Fixed Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Conversion Devices: Toward Geometry Hydraulic Optimization , 2015 .

[39]  Gérard C. Nihous,et al.  Study of the force coefficients on plates using an open source numerical wave tank , 2016 .

[40]  John Ringwood,et al.  Implementation of latching control in a numerical wave tank with regular waves , 2016 .

[41]  John V. Ringwood,et al.  Adaptive control of a wave energy converter simulated in a numerical wave tank , 2017 .