The characteristics of the free surface in an orifice driven by a periodic forcing function have been studied both theoretically and experimentally. In the theoretical study, two wall boundary condition cases were examined: 1) the radial velocity at the wall of the orifice is zero; and 2) the axial velocity...
Engineering applications often require fast, accurate solutions of fluid flow around freely moving bodies. The massive parallelism enabled by graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture enables high performance, offering a promising alternative to traditional solver acceleration via multicore central processing units (CPU). However, fully harnessing GPU parallelism requires specialized algorithms and...
Wave energy holds great promise to be part of the alternative energy portfolio that will provide independence from fossil fuels. As wave energy converter (WEC) technologies mature, designing effective control strategies to extract maximum energy, extend device life, coordinate WEC operation within an array, or mitigate negative impacts of a...
This thesis investigates the applicability of the finite element method to model wave energy converter (WEC) hydroelasticity using LS-DYNA. The proposed methodology uses the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation to model Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) between the WEC and the fluid elements. This formulation allows for time-domain modeling of higher order effects such...