TEAMER: Advanced Wave-to-Wire OWC model in WEC-Sim

Accurate numerical models are crucial for the development of wave energy converter (WEC) technologies, providing the means for power production and lifetime assessment, site selection, and design of mooring lines, PTO systems and controllers, among other aspects. This project aims at developing a wave-to-wire (w2w) numerical model for floating oscillating water column (OWC) devices based upon the Wave Energy Converter SIMulator (WEC-Sim) platform. To that end, nonlinear hydrodynamics, considering viscous and nonlinear Froude-Krylov effects were implemented, and new capabilities were articulated into the WEC-Sim platform, incorporating thermos-aerodynamic effects for the air-turbine. 

For this submission, a numerical model of a wave-to-wire controller was developed, and its efficiency and performance tested numerically. In addition to this, a mooring system was also included in the numerical model. The hydrodynamic coefficients for the OWC were calculated using different numerical solvers: ANSYS, WAMIT, Capyatine, and NEMOH. Additionally, two distinct contrasting modeling approaches were tested and the resulting data included. In the first approach, the WEC's main structure and the OWC are modeled as separate entities. In the second, the WEC and OWC are considered a single body, with the free surface of the oscillating water column added as an extra degree of freedom. Nonlinear hydrodynamic effects, including viscosity and nonlinear Froude-Krylov forces, are incorporated to assess their impact on the numerical analysis of OWC systems.

This repository contains:
- The final TEAMER Post Access Report
- A comprehensive file of data and code for advanced WEC-Sim modeling and Wave-to-Wire control of Oscillating Water Column wave energy converters
- A ReadMe file describing the project's Rigid Body Approach and Generalized Body Modes (GBM) Approach to modeling, the two control approaches (Wave-to-Wire (W2W) Optimal Control and Turbine Efficiency Maximization), and the contents of each folder within the data file
- link to the WEC-Sim Project GitHub (https://wec-sim.github.io/WEC-Sim/main/index.html)
- link to the WEC-Sim Wave Energy Converter Simulator MHKDR Submission (https://mhkdr.openei.org/submissions/616)

The data file includes:
- the preliminary results for the Rigid Body Approach using the pseudo spectral model
- BEM results from different numerical solvers including WAMIT, NEMOH, Capytaine, and Ansys
- model files and results for the Generalized Body Motion Approach, using a wave-to-wire optimal control
- model files and results for the Generalized Body Motion Approach, using a Turbine Energy Maximization control approach
- model files and results for the Generalized Body Mode Approach without any specific control approach
- American Control Conference 2025 codes for the 2025 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA) accepted paper titled "Optimal Control of Floating Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converters". This paper will be added to this submission following its release.


Tags: ansys, capyatine, froude-krylov-forces, generalized-body-modes-approach, github, marine-renewable-energy, mhk, model, nemoh, nonlinear-hydrodynamic-effects, numerical-analysis, numerical-model, oscillating-water-column, owc, rigid-body-approach, teamer, turbine-efficiency-maximization, w2w, wamit, wave-energy, wave-energy-converter, wave-to-wire-modelling-and-control, wave-to-wire-optimal-control, wec
Organization: Department of Energy