TY - JOUR
T1 - Coupled mooring analysis for floating wave energy converters using CFD
T2 - Formulation and validation
AU - Palm, Johannes
AU - Eskilsson, Claes
AU - Paredes, Guilherme Moura
AU - Bergdahl, Lars
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Floating wave energy converters (WECs) operating in the resonance region are strongly affected by non-linearities arising from the interaction between the waves, the WEC motion and the mooring restraints. To compute the restrained WEC motion thus requires a method which readily accounts for these effects. This paper presents a method for coupled mooring analysis using a two-phase Navier-Stokes (VOF-RANS) model and a high-order finite element model of mooring cables. The method is validated against experimental measurements of a cylindrical buoy in regular waves, slack-moored with three catenary mooring cables. There is overall a good agreement between experimental and computational results with respect to buoy motions and mooring forces. Most importantly, the coupled numerical model accurately recreates the strong wave height dependence of the response amplitude operators seen in the experiments.
AB - Floating wave energy converters (WECs) operating in the resonance region are strongly affected by non-linearities arising from the interaction between the waves, the WEC motion and the mooring restraints. To compute the restrained WEC motion thus requires a method which readily accounts for these effects. This paper presents a method for coupled mooring analysis using a two-phase Navier-Stokes (VOF-RANS) model and a high-order finite element model of mooring cables. The method is validated against experimental measurements of a cylindrical buoy in regular waves, slack-moored with three catenary mooring cables. There is overall a good agreement between experimental and computational results with respect to buoy motions and mooring forces. Most importantly, the coupled numerical model accurately recreates the strong wave height dependence of the response amplitude operators seen in the experiments.
KW - Coupled simulations
KW - Mooring dynamics
KW - Navier-Stokes equations
KW - Point-absorbers
KW - Wave energy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84969849355&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijome.2016.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ijome.2016.05.003
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84969849355
SN - 2214-1669
VL - 16
SP - 83
EP - 99
JO - International Journal of Marine Energy
JF - International Journal of Marine Energy
ER -