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Schmitt, P., & Elsaesser, B. (2015). On the use of OpenFOAM to model Oscillating wave surge converters.
Ocean Engineering, 108, 98-104. DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.07.055
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Ocean Engineering
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Ocean Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng
art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) toolbox OpenFOAM is used to assess the applicability of
Received 9 October 2014 Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solvers to the simulation of oscillating wave surge converters
Accepted 27 July 2015 (OWSC) in significant waves. Simulation of these flap type devices requires the solution of the equations
of motion and the representation of the OWSC's motion in a moving mesh. A new way to simulate the
Keywords: sea floor inside a section of the moving mesh with a moving dissipation zone is presented. To assess the
OWSC accuracy of the new solver, experiments are conducted in regular and irregular wave traces for a full
CFD three dimensional model. Results for acceleration and flow features are presented for numerical and
OpenFOAM experimental data. It is found that the new numerical model reproduces experimental results within the
WEC
bounds of experimental accuracy.
& 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.07.055
0029-8018/& 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
P. Schmitt, B. Elsaesser / Ocean Engineering 108 (2015) 98–104 99
Under the assumption that the fluid solver gives correct results
for the hydrodynamic forces FHydro on a body, other outer force
components like gravity and damping forces can be added to
obtain the total outer forces on the body F.
The instantaneous acceleration a can then easily be obtained by
dividing the force F by the mass m:
F
a¼ ð9Þ
m
Similarly the change in rotation angle ϕ can be obtained as larger rotation amplitudes of the flap. The shape and frequency of
_ _ the rotation traces agree well.
ðϕ n þ 1 þ ϕ n Þδ t
δϕ ¼ ð14Þ Results of simulations for different values of the dissipation
2
value under the floor level are shown in Fig. 6. The maximum
rotation angle for the case with a dissipation coefficient of zero,
The position of the centre of gravity is then updated to the new that is without taking into account the sea floor inside the rotating
position, employing Rodrigues' formula (Mebius, 2007): cylinder, is about 10% or 31 less than for the two cases run with
! ! values of 50 or 100. A phase-shift can also be observed. The flap
CoG n ¼ x Hinge;CoG cos ðϕÞ
reaches its maximum rotation angle earlier when the floor is not
considered, this difference increases over the wave period T
! !
þ a x Hinge;CoG sin ðϕÞ displayed. No difference between the two later cases can be
! observed, all future cases were run with a value of 50.
! !
þ a x Hinge;CoG 1 cos ðϕÞ a ð15Þ The accuracy of the solution is affected in two ways by the
! choice of time step. The solution of the flow field and the solution of
with a as the directional unit vector of the flaps hinge axis and the equation of motion of the moving flap are both time step
!
x Hinge;CoG the vector from the position of the centre of gravity dependent. Only the solution of the flow field is physically related
! !
at the start of the simulation CoG 0 to the hinge position x Hinge . to the Courant number. The accuracy of the solution of the equation
The reason for evaluating the new position of the centre of of motion can thus not be deemed sufficient for all cases, only
gravity from the initial position at the start of the simulation, because the flow field is solved correctly. For example, a configura-
and not from the preceding time-step, is to avoid accumulation tion in which the flow velocities are low but the accelerations of the
of numerical errors. flap high, the time step might be too large for the motion solver. It
seems though, that in general the high velocities around the top of
The algorithm described above was implemented in Open- the flap and quickly moving fluid interfaces constrain the time-step
FOAM as a new body motion solver. The method can be called more than the equations of motion. Fig. 7 shows the rotation angle
from any mesh motion solver. over time for simulations performed with different Courant num-
bers. Results show very little variation for Courant numbers smaller
than 0.3. In all following simulations a Courant number of
2.2. Mesh motion 0.2 was used.
Fig. 4. Visualisation of the flap, water surface and the dissipation parameter representing the sea floor.
Fig. 5. Influence of mesh resolution around the sea-floor on flap rotation over one Fig. 6. Influence of dissipation parameter settings on flap rotation over one wave
wave period T. period T.
Fig. 7. Influence of Courant number on flap rotation over one wave period T.
Fig. 8. Sketch of tank bathymetry, water level and flap position. Measurements
are in mm.
Fig. 10. Surface elevation measured 1 m from the centre-line of the tank beside the
hinge position (A) and radial (top) and tangential (bottom) acceleration compo-
nents (B) for experimental and numerical tests in monochromatic waves.
The relatively low skill value for the radial acceleration is mainly
due to the high frequency noise of the experimental signal, which is
not present in the numerical data and obviously not a real feature of
the flap motion.
The radial acceleration caused by the flap motion acts against
gravity. When the flap moves, radial acceleration drops from the
starting level of 9:81 m=s2 and after settling oscillates with a small
amplitude of about 0:5 m=s2 over each wave cycles around an
average of 7:5 m=s2 .
The tangential acceleration shows much larger amplitudes of
up to 7 m=s2 . The crests show very good agreement in shape and
amplitude between numerical and experimental data. Some dif-
ferences can be observed in the shape of the troughs. While the
crests are round, the troughs show a little dip when reaching the
highest negative acceleration, the signal than flattens out before
rising again. The flat part is much more pronounced in the Fig. 11. Surface elevation measured 1 m from the centre-line of the tank beside the
numerical data, the amplitudes of negative acceleration agree very hinge position (A) and radial (top) and tangential (bottom) acceleration compo-
nents (B) for experimental and numerical tests for irregular waves.
well between numerical and physical data.
As a second test case a series of waves of similar but varying
amplitude and frequency were calibrated in the physical tank,
results are shown in Fig. 11. The plot shows results in the same and overall less than in the monochromatic case. Again radial
way as previously in Fig. 11. acceleration yields lowest skill values of all three traces.
The skill values are as follows: The wave trace consists of three waves of about 0.03 m height,
followed by waves of significantly smaller amplitudes and periods,
0:9671 surface elevation at 15 s a larger wave of about 0.03 m height and about 2 s period
0:8806 radial acceleration ends the trace. The surface elevation of the numerical and experi-
0:9613 tangential acceleration mental data match well, the skill value is 0.9671. Only the smaller
104 P. Schmitt, B. Elsaesser / Ocean Engineering 108 (2015) 98–104
amplitude waves around 10 s show some difference, there and at Bhinder, M., Babarit, A., Gentaz, L., Ferrant, P., 2012. Effect of viscous forces on the
the very beginning and end of the trace high frequency oscillations performance of a surging wave energy converter. In: European Wave and Tidal
Energy Conference, pp. 545–549 (Cited by 1).
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during the experiments, it seems reasonable to assume that these the impact of the ancão inlet relocation (Ria formosa, Portugal). Environ. Model.
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case with smaller wave heights, when these discrepancies occur. As by local Galerkin projection. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 200, 89–100.
in the monochromatic cases high frequency noise can be observed Fenton, J.D., 2002. Developments in Offshore Engineering, vol. 2. Gulf.
Ferziger, J., Peric, M., 2002. Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics, 3rd ed.
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5. Conclusions ^ I., Hennig J., Perić M. and Xing-Kaeding Y., 2005. Computation of flow-
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mental benchmark tank tests. The following conclusions can be basin. Ocean Eng. 35, 763–773.
Mebius, J.E., 2007. Derivation of the Euler–Rodrigues Formula for Three-
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simulation of an OWSC in normal operating conditions. mentos en flujos con superficie libre (Ph.D. thesis). E.T.S. Ingenieros Industriales
The method of using a cylindrical mesh rotating around the Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica y Mecánica de Fluidos Pza. El Ejido s/n,
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hinge point enables efficient simulation of a moving flap. Palm, J., Eskilsson, C., Moura Paredes, G., Bergdahl, L., 2013. CFD simulation of a
Modelling the bed with a spatially fixed dissipation zone moored floating wave energy converter. In: 10th European Wave and Tidal
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Acknowledgements Schmitt, P., Bourdier, S., Sarkar, D., Renzi, E., Dias, F., Doherty, K., Whittaker, T., van’t
Hoff, J., 2012a. Hydrodynamic loading on a bottom hinged oscillating wave
Pal Schmitt's Ph.D. was made possible by an EPSRC Ind Case surge converter. In: Proceedings of the 22nd (2012) International Offshore and
Polar Engineering Conference. International Society of Offshore and Polar
Studentship 2008/09 Voucher 08002614 instead of EPSRC case
Engineers (ISOPE), pp. 550–557.
award with industrial sponsorship from Aquamarine Power Ltd. Schmitt, P., Doherty, K., Clabby, D., Whittaker, T., 2012b. The opportunities and
Their support is much appreciated. limitations of using CFD in the development of wave energy converters. Mar.
Offshore Renew. Energy, 89–97.
Schmitt, P., Elsaesser, B., 2015. A review of wave makers for 3D numerical
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