A STUDY OF FLOATING OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN USING CFD SOFTWARE

Abstract

An approach named Oscillating Water Column (OWC) uses wave energy to produce electricity. It functions by taking advantage of the pressure oscillation caused by waves in the OWC's opening mouth. A turbine positioned at the summit of the OWC structure is used to extract the oscillation of the pressured air. As the component that directs airflow towards the turbine, the orientation and condition are vital to the energy conversion process. The system's efficiency and performance can be significantly impacted by the design of this component. Studying the effects of this design on the power output form is the objective of this paper. Moreover, the result will be compared with the conventional Bend Duct Buoy (BDB). The OWC performance is analysed using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software to identify which BDB has high efficiency. Autodesk Inventor is used to design the OWC devices modified from the basis design. Then these designs are imported into CFD software to simulate and obtain the energy extraction result. The CFD software is chosen to simulate the hydrodynamics problem. In this study, the backward bend duct buoy shows significant improvement in the energy extraction performance compared to the basis design. The moving backward managed to produce highest efficiency at all wave condition at the wave height of 0.09, 0.15, and 0.18 m, respectively.