CFD study of a moored floating cylinder: Comparison with experimental data
Paper in proceeding, 2015

A generic point-absorbing wave energy converter is modeled in CFD as a vertical cylinder, moored with a single catenary chain that is fully coupled through a dynamic mooring code. The method of choice is very complete and takes much of the non-linearities in the highly coupled system of the moored body into account. The paper presents numerical results compared with experimental data for surge, heave and pitch motion in both decay tests and regular waves. Further, the wave motion response of the cylinder is computed using both a viscous and a non-viscous formulation as a first attempt to quantify viscous effects. Results show a good match between numerical and experimental results in heave, while the surge and pitch motion are more difficult to reproduce. The mooring load cycle appearance compares well with the experiments in shape but gives higher peak values. Although made at low Keulegan-Carpenter numbers, the simulations show vortical structures due to the heave motion, and the resulting motions are clearly affected by the inclusion or exclusion of viscosity. More test-cases and detailed experimental results are needed for further quantification of the viscous impact on floating point absorbers.

Author

Johannes Palm

Chalmers, Shipping and Marine Technology, Marine Technology

Claes Eskilsson

Chalmers, Shipping and Marine Technology, Marine Technology

Lars Bergdahl

Chalmers, Shipping and Marine Technology, Marine Technology

Guilherme Moura Paredes

University of Porto

Renewable Energies Offshore

913-920
978-1-138-02871-5 (ISBN)

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Energy

Infrastructure

C3SE (Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering)

Subject Categories

Marine Engineering

DOI

10.1201/b18973-128

ISBN

978-1-138-02871-5

More information

Latest update

3/19/2018