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Volume 13
Issue 12
10.3390/pr13123942
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Numerical Geometric Evaluation of an L-Shaped Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter Under the Realistic Sea State Found in Rio Grande-RS

by
Maycon da Silveira Paiva
1,
Ana Paula Giussani Mocellin
1,
Elizaldo Domingues dos Santos
1,
Luiz Alberto Oliveira Rocha
1,
Bianca Neves Machado
2 and
Liércio André Isoldi
1,*
1
School of Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Rio Grande 96203-900, RS, Brazil
2
Interdisciplinary Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Tramandaí 95590-000, RS, Brazil
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Processes 2025, 13(12), 3942; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13123942
Submission received: 5 November 2025 / Revised: 2 December 2025 / Accepted: 2 December 2025 / Published: 5 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Modeling, Optimization and Control of Renewable Energy Systems)
Versions Notes

Abstract

This study conducts a numerical investigation of the geometry of the oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter under realistic irregular wave conditions found off the coast of Rio Grande, southern Brazil. Two OWC models were compared: the conventional design and the L-shaped configuration (L-OWC). The OWC structure consists of a hydropneumatic chamber and an air duct, where a turbine is coupled to an electric generator. Additionally, in the L-shaped chamber configuration, a water intake duct is considered. The constructal design method was employed for the geometric evaluation of the devices. For the L-OWC, the influence of the height-to-length ratio of the water intake duct on the obtained hydropneumatic power available was analyzed. In parallel, for the conventional OWC, the free-board submergence was investigated. Subsequently, the optimal geometry for each OWC model was selected to study the height-to-length ratio of the hydropneumatic chamber. Numerical simulations were performed using ANSYS Fluent software. Thus, the performance of the converters was improved by approximately 35.76 times for the L-OWC and 3.78 times for the conventional OWC. However, it is noteworthy that the optimal configuration of the conventional OWC achieved a performance 2.62 times higher than the optimal L-OWC geometry.
Keywords: wave energy converter; L-OWC; geometrical evaluation; WaveMIMO methodology; realistic irregular waves; computational fluid dynamics wave energy converter; L-OWC; geometrical evaluation; WaveMIMO methodology; realistic irregular waves; computational fluid dynamics

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MDPI and ACS Style

Paiva, M.d.S.; Mocellin, A.P.G.; dos Santos, E.D.; Rocha, L.A.O.; Machado, B.N.; Isoldi, L.A. Numerical Geometric Evaluation of an L-Shaped Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter Under the Realistic Sea State Found in Rio Grande-RS. Processes 2025, 13, 3942. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13123942

AMA Style

Paiva MdS, Mocellin APG, dos Santos ED, Rocha LAO, Machado BN, Isoldi LA. Numerical Geometric Evaluation of an L-Shaped Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter Under the Realistic Sea State Found in Rio Grande-RS. Processes. 2025; 13(12):3942. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13123942

Chicago/Turabian Style

Paiva, Maycon da Silveira, Ana Paula Giussani Mocellin, Elizaldo Domingues dos Santos, Luiz Alberto Oliveira Rocha, Bianca Neves Machado, and Liércio André Isoldi. 2025. "Numerical Geometric Evaluation of an L-Shaped Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter Under the Realistic Sea State Found in Rio Grande-RS" Processes 13, no. 12: 3942. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13123942

APA Style

Paiva, M. d. S., Mocellin, A. P. G., dos Santos, E. D., Rocha, L. A. O., Machado, B. N., & Isoldi, L. A. (2025). Numerical Geometric Evaluation of an L-Shaped Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter Under the Realistic Sea State Found in Rio Grande-RS. Processes, 13(12), 3942. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13123942

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