A CFD-FEM analysis for Anaconda WEC with mooring lines

Huang, Yang and Xiao, Qing and Idarraga Alarcon, Guillermo and Yang, Liu and Dai, David and Abad, Farhad and Brennan, Feargal and Lotfian, Saeid; Ilzarbe, Jesús María Blanco, ed. (2023) A CFD-FEM analysis for Anaconda WEC with mooring lines. In: Proceedings of the 15th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference 2023. EWTEC, Bilbao. (https://doi.org/10.36688/ewtec-2023-163)

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Abstract

To obtain a deeper understanding on the dynamic response of flexible tube wave energy converter (WEC) in realistic ocean environment, the Anaconda WEC with mooring lines is numerically modelled in this paper. A coupled numerical analysis tool based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) method was established to perform fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations for Anaconda WEC. The surrounding flow is solved by a two-phase CFD solver, and the structural dynamics are calculated using a three-dimensional (3D) FEA code. Strong coupling between the fluid and solid phases is achieved by adopting a multi-physical coupling library. With this tool, the FSI responses of Anaconda WEC with mooring lines under regular waves can be captured. The tube motion, pressure field, generated power, structure deformation and stress distribution are fully examined to explore the impact of mooring line on the performance of the device. The results indicate that an increase in mooring line stiffness leads to a reduction in tube's bow motion, resulting in decreased internal pressure and reduced energy generation. A higher mooring line stiffness reduces the extent of variation of cross-sectional area, leading to a lower hoop stress and mitigating the risk of material failure.

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