On the flow simulation based on piston models in OWC devices for wave energy conversion

Abstract

Several numerical models were adopted to simulate the flow behavior inside an oscillating column OWC device. The current paper presents a comparison between two numerical models, the prime is based on the study of the air flow in a simplified OWC piston model, and the other takes into consideration the whole domain composed of the OWC chamber coupled with a wave tank WT; which enable to investigate the impact of air-water interaction on the OWC device performances. For both models the flow is assumed to be unsteady, 2D, biphasic (air-water), and k-epsilon turbulent model.