High fidelity computer simulation of cascading pneumatic wave energy converters

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Even on a calm summer day, the concentration of wave energy off the coast of Vancouver Island, BC is approximately ten times that of solar energy. The overt power of ocean waves has inspired the invention of different Wave Energy Converter (WEC) technologies since the 1700's, and WEC devices are often cited as an important entry in Canada's modern day portfolio of renewable energy solutions. Yet, little to no precision is currently provided in the description of Canada's wave energy opportunity and it is not clear how WECs will perform in Canadian waters. Since 2008, the West Coast Wave Initiative (WCWI) hosted at the University of Victoria's Institute for Integrated Energy Systems has been building an extensive database of wave conditions and computational tools for the detailed design and optimization of WEC technology. In the proposed Engage project, these assets will be applied to study the performance of an innovative Canadian WEC device developed by Accumulated Ocean Energy (AOE). The AOE device uses heaving point absorbers to compress air, and the pressurized air is accumulated in stages; each stage contains multiple point absorbers that drive pressurized air into the next stage for further compression; at the end of the process, the pressurized air is used to drive a generator. To accurately assess the performance of the AOE device, the hydrodynamics of the floating point absorber hulls, the mooring dynamics and the thermodynamics of the pneumatic accumulation must be fully coupled; the states of the mooring, the hulls and the compressed air are inextricably linked. The proposed project will see the creation of a new model of the pneumatic PTO that can be inserted into commercial software, ProteusDS, which already includes floating hull and mooring hydrodynamic algorithms. In addition, the project will examine ways of accelerating the execution speed of the ProteusDS code so that several stages of AOE point absorbers can be considered without sacrificing the coupling of the various dynamic processes in the complete system. The completed model will be used to assess the system performance for a finite set of wave conditions recorded by the WCWI off of Vancouver Island.