Development of an OpenFOAM Fluid-Structure Interaction Model of an Oscillating Wave Surge Converter

Conference: 39th International Conference on Ocean Offshore & Arctic Engineering (OMAE 2020)

Abstract: Wave energy converters (WEC), particularly those of the oscillating paddle type, are one of the least utilized categories of marine energy harvesting devices. As such, the goal of this research is to develop improved WEC technology through numerical modeling that will inform future experimental testing, which is being carried out by the Pacific Marine Energy Center. A novel scheme using mesh distortion and re-meshing to simulate the rotation of a wave-driven oscillating wave surge converter is presented herein using only the default functionality of the OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics software package as a framework to implement the scheme as a convenient tool for engineers to study OWSC performance. This scheme relies on the use of finite volume mesh quality parameters, namely mesh cell non-orthogonality and skewness, to control when re-meshing operations are undertaken, minimizing the number of re-meshing operations needed to accommodate OWSC motions while maintaining solution stability and accuracy.