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RM6: Oscillating Water Column

Project Summary

The Reference Model Project was a partnered effort to develop open-source marine hydrokinetic (MHK) point designs as reference models to benchmark MHK technology performance and costs, and an open-source methodology for design and analysis of MHK technologies, including models for estimating their capital costs, operational costs, and levelized costs of energy.

Reference Model 6

Reference Model 6 (RM6) is a Backward Bent Duct Buoy (BBDB), which is a type of oscillating water column wave energy converter. First proposed by Masuda, the BBDB design is a floating Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device that consists of an air chamber, an L-shaped duct, bow and stern buoyancy modules, and a power take-off (PTO) composed of a Wells air turbine and a generator. This L- shaped device opens to the ocean downstream from the wave propagation direction. Power is produced by the motion of the wave, which causes the ambient pressure in the air chamber to vary thereby forcing air to flow through the Wells turbine. The reference wave energy resource for RM6 was developed from site information collected near Eureka, in Humboldt County, California.

The floating BBDB design capitalizes on the coupling between the motion of the structure and motion of the free surface contained within the structure. This coupling can expand the frequency range over which good power conversion occurs thus yielding a higher primary conversion efficiency when compared to other OWC’s.

The mooring layout was designed to maximize energy production in the operational climate but still have high reliability in severe weather conditions at the chosen test site near Eureka, CA. Therefore, the mooring was laid out to have two front lines separated by 60º with the bisector of that angle being the operational incident wave direction and the aft line along the operational incident wave direction.

The wave-to-pneumatic converter is designed to capture the most available power from the incident waves. This is dictated mainly by the physical structure and the controls (implemented through the power conversion chain) used to influence the dynamics of the physical structure. The pneumatic power is then converted to electrical power by use of an air turbine connected to an electric generator. The electricity produced is conditioned prior to insertion to the local power grid.

The Wells air turbine is a power extraction device capable of collecting power in a bi-directional flow. It is attractive for use in OWC devices owing to the bi-directional nature of the flow in such devices. The Wells turbine consists of a fixed number of blades, which typically have a symmetric airfoil profile, and which have the blade chord oriented perpendicular to the rotational axis of the rotor.

This table lists documents associated with the RM6: Oscillating Water Column project, including reports written by the project team and/or papers that have used the project outputs or are closely associated with them. To find additional project outputs, including related papers, datasets, and codes, explore the RM6: Oscillating Water Column page on PRIMRE.

Associated Marine Energy Engineering Documents

Total results: 19
Title Author Date Type of Content Technology Collection Method Engineering
Extreme Ocean Wave Conditions for Northern California Wave Energy Conversion Device Berg, J. Report Wave, Point Absorber Field Data
Optimal Resistive Control Strategy for a Floating OWC Device Bull, D., Johnson, E. Conference Paper Wave, Oscillating Water Column Field Data Array Effects, Hydrodynamics, Performance, Structural
The Contribution of Environmental Siting and Permitting Requirements to the Cost of Energy for Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Devices Reference Model #6 Copping, A., Geerlofs, S., Hanna, L. Report Wave, Oscillating Water Column Full Scale, Scale Device Hydrodynamics
Optimization and Annual Average Power Predictions of A Backward Bent Duct Buoy Oscillating Water Column Device Using the Wells Turbine Smith, C., Bull, D., Willits, S. Conference Paper Wave, Oscillating Water Column Field Data, Scale Device Hydrodynamics, Performance, Structural
Pneumatic Performance of a Non-Axisymmetric Floating Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Conversion Device in Random Waves Bull, D. Conference Paper Wave, Oscillating Water Column Field Data Hydrodynamics, Performance, Structural
Optimization and Annual Average Power Predictions of A Backward Bent Duct Buoy Oscillating Water Column Device Using the Wells Turbine Smith, C., Willits, S., Fontaine, A. Report Wave, Oscillating Water Column Field Data, Scale Device Hydrodynamics, Performance, Structural
Experimental Confirmation of Water Column Natural Resonance Migration in a BBDB Device Bull, D., Gunawan, B., Holmes, B. Report Wave, Oscillating Water Column Lab Data, Modeling, Scale Device Hydrodynamics, Performance, Power Take Off, Structural
Mooring Design for the Floating Oscillating Water Column Reference Model Brefort, D., Bull, D. Report Wave, Oscillating Water Column Modeling Hydrodynamics, Mooring
Oscillating Water Column Structural Model Copeland, G., Bull, D., Jepsen, R. Report Wave, Oscillating Water Column Lab Data, Modeling Structural
Reference Model 6 (RM6): Oscillating Wave Energy Converter Bull, D., Smith, C., Jenne, D. Report Wave, Oscillating Water Column Lab Data, Modeling, Scale Device Hydrodynamics, Performance, Structural
Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis of Marine and Hydrokinetic Reference Models Jenne, D., Yu, Y., Neary, V. Conference Paper Current, Wave Modeling
Assessment of Navier Stokes Modelling of an Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter RAMELIARISON, V., ASTRUC, D., Chapalain, G. Conference Paper Wave, Oscillating Water Column Modeling
An improved understanding of the natural resonances of moonpools contained within floating rigid-bodies: Theory and application to oscillating water column devices Bull, D. Journal Article Wave, Oscillating Water Column Modeling Array Effects, Hydrodynamics, Performance, Structural
Levelized cost of energy for marine energy conversion (MEC) technologies Neary, V., Kobos, P., Jenne, D. Conference Paper Current, Wave Modeling
Levelized cost of energy for a Backward Bent Duct Buoy Bull, D., Jenne, D., Smith, C. Journal Article Wave, Oscillating Water Column Modeling Performance, Structural
Motion and performance of BBDB OWC wave energy converters: I, hydrodynamics Sheng, W. Journal Article Wave, Oscillating Water Column Modeling Hydrodynamics, Performance
Backward bent-duct buoy or frontward bent-duct buoy? Review, assessment and optimisation Portillo, J., Reis, P., Henriques, J. Journal Article Wave, Oscillating Water Column Modeling Control, Performance, Power Take Off
Methodology for creating nonaxisymmetric WECs to screen mooring designs using a Morison Equation approach Bull, D., Jacob, P. Conference Paper Wave, Oscillating Water Column Field Data Hydrodynamics, Mooring, Power Take Off, Structural
PacWave Anchoring and Mooring Study Housner, S., Sirnivas, S. Report Wave, Point Absorber, Oscillating Water Column Modeling Mooring
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 results