Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
HYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATION OF WECS (WAVE ENERGY CONVERTERS) FOR USE ON THE BRAZILIAN COAST.
Submission Author:
Maria Fernanda Bezerra de Mendonça , PE
Co-Authors:
Maria Fernanda Bezerra de Mendonça , JOSÉ ÂNGELO PEIXOTO DA COSTA, Anderson Silva, LÍDIA SANTOS, Dayanne Oliveira, Heber Silva, Alvaro Antonio Ochoa Villa, Frederico Duarte de Menezes
Presenter: Maria Fernanda Bezerra de Mendonça
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-1217
Abstract
WECs (Wave Energy Converters) are devices capable of converting the energy present in waves into electrical energy. The demand for new energy sources is increasing, and such devices become an alternative for minimizing problems such as CO2 emission and also as a renewable source of energy, favoring the reduction of the use of non-renewable sources such as coal and petroleum. Small WECs (<1Kw), are also a way of circumventing problems related to the high cost with the implementation of offshore technologies, being structures capable of absorbing energy on coasts with a small wave regime, which makes them ideal for application on the Brazilian coast, which shows an energy potential of 20 kW / m on average. Thus, the objective of the study was to develop a low power float type WEC to be applied on the Brazilian coast. The first stage of the project consisted of creating the float model geometry via CAD (Computer-Aided Design) based on the study of the types of existing WECs, followed by a numerical simulation using CAE tools (Computer-Aided Engineering) , where Ansys Aqwa was used in hydrodynamic simulation and Mechanical for structural simulation. The analyzes performed are intended to extract data from the prototype to evaluate its performance. Thus, the hydrodynamic simulation of the complete geometry initially took place, where the results of pressures and movements on the structure are evaluated, and two more analyzes via finite elements (FEA), of the rotor model used in the device, to obtain its response to structural loads. In this bias, data based on the Pernambuco coast were used as the boundary conditions of the simulations. Finally, based on the results obtained, it was possible to evaluate the feasibility of applying the float on the coast of Pernambuco, thus indicating that the tools used had satisfactory results, showing that they were fit for the project's objective of developing the device.
Keywords
wave energy, Wave energy converters, Hydrodynamic simulation, FEA simulation, Renewable energies, ANSYS
