A review of numerical methods for studying hydrodynamic performance of oscillating water column (OWC) devices
Ming Zhao, Dezhi Ning
Abstract
This paper provides a review of the numerical methods for studying hydrodynamic performance of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy converters (WECs), covering analytical methods, the frequency and time domain numerical models based on the potential flow theory, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models based on the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and a meshless method, i.e., Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). This critical review aims to make systematic comparison between different numerical methods, identify the suitability of different method for different stages of OWC design, and provide recommendations for future numerical studies. While improving OWC through geometric modification of OWCs has been studied extensively, future studies should be more focused on the enhancement of wave condition, the effects of air compressibility in prototype and the effect of turbine properties on OWC.