COMPARISON OF 2D AND 3D SIMULATIONS OF AN OWC DEVICE IN DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS

Abstract

The oscillating water column (OWC)device is a wave energy converter which converts the work done by the air column in a partially submerged pneumatic chamber into a electrical energy. This paper carries out numerical simulations using a computation fluid dynamics model to study the motion of the free surface inside the chamber in two different configurations of the device and also in two- and three-dimensions. It is observed that the 2D and 3D simulations provide the same results for the motion of the free surface and thus computationally cheaper 2D simulations can be employed to study the hydrodynamics of the OWC device. It is also observed that an asymmetrical device produces higher oscillation of the free surface in the chamber as it does not allow transmission of the wave across the device as in a symmetrical configuration.