TY - JOUR
T1 - Motion Response and Energy Conversion Performance of a Heaving Point Absorber Wave Energy Converter
AU - Zhou, Bin Zhen
AU - Hu, Jian Jian
AU - Sun, Ke
AU - Liu, Yingyi
AU - Collu, Maurizio
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grant 51761135013, INNO-MPP project, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council UK (EPSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council UK (NERC), through grant EP/R007497/1, the Open Fund of Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, the High-tech Ship Research Projects Sponsored by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China-Floating Support Platform Project (the second stage) (MIIT201622).
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2020 Zhou, Hu, Sun, Liu and Collu.
PY - 2020/9/29
Y1 - 2020/9/29
N2 - The heaving wave energy converter (WEC) is one typical type of point absorber WECs with high energy conversion efficiency but significantly affected by the viscous effect. It is widely known that the bottom shape of such WECs plays an important role in influencing the viscosity, so a detailed qualitative investigation is essential. Here a numerical study is performed for the influence of bottom shape on motion response and energy conversion performance of a heaving WEC. The numerical model is developed based on the potential flow theory with a viscous correction in the frequency domain. Cylindrical WECs with flat, cone, and hemispherical bottoms and the same displacement are considered. WECs with larger diameter-to-draft ratios (DDRs) are found to experience a relatively smaller viscous effect and achieve effective energy conversion in a broader frequency range. With the same DDR, the flat bottom has the most considerable viscous effect, following by the cone bottom with conical angles 90° and the hemispherical bottom. When the DDR is relatively small, the hemispherical bottom had the best energy conversion performance. Similarly, when the DDR is relatively large, the energy conversion performance of the floater with a hemispherical bottom and a cone bottom with 90° is better, while that with the flat bottom is the worst.
AB - The heaving wave energy converter (WEC) is one typical type of point absorber WECs with high energy conversion efficiency but significantly affected by the viscous effect. It is widely known that the bottom shape of such WECs plays an important role in influencing the viscosity, so a detailed qualitative investigation is essential. Here a numerical study is performed for the influence of bottom shape on motion response and energy conversion performance of a heaving WEC. The numerical model is developed based on the potential flow theory with a viscous correction in the frequency domain. Cylindrical WECs with flat, cone, and hemispherical bottoms and the same displacement are considered. WECs with larger diameter-to-draft ratios (DDRs) are found to experience a relatively smaller viscous effect and achieve effective energy conversion in a broader frequency range. With the same DDR, the flat bottom has the most considerable viscous effect, following by the cone bottom with conical angles 90° and the hemispherical bottom. When the DDR is relatively small, the hemispherical bottom had the best energy conversion performance. Similarly, when the DDR is relatively large, the energy conversion performance of the floater with a hemispherical bottom and a cone bottom with 90° is better, while that with the flat bottom is the worst.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092719538&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85092719538&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fenrg.2020.553295
DO - 10.3389/fenrg.2020.553295
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092719538
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Energy Research
JF - Frontiers in Energy Research
SN - 2296-598X
M1 - 553295
ER -