TEAMER: Assessing Structural Integrity of a Self-Reactive Point Absorber Subjected to Extreme Sea Conditions

Description

This submission contains the numerical modeling data and analysis results generated for the structural integrity assessment of a self-reactive two-body point absorber wave energy converter (WEC) designed by the University of Michigan. The dataset includes hydrodynamic outputs from ANSYS AQWA time-domain simulations conducted across nine extreme sea states along the 50-year return-period wave contour for the PACWave South site. These data provide WEC motions, wave-induced forces, and bending moments used to identify the governing survival-mode load cases. High-fidelity hydrodynamic loads were then produced using RANS-based OpenFOAM simulations for nine down-selected extreme wave events, including time histories of free-surface elevation, heave/pitch motions, vertical accelerations, and detailed pressure fields mapped over the WEC geometry. These CFD-generated pressure distributions were subsequently transferred to an NX Nastran/FEMAP finite element model to evaluate yielding and buckling performance under 18 critical load configurations. The submission also includes supporting documentation describing device geometry, mass properties, mooring configuration, mesh discretization, and modeling methodologies. Use of these data requires several assumptions inherent to the modeling approach. Under extreme conditions, the buoy and spar are assumed to be mechanically locked, eliminating relative motion and representing the WEC's survival mode. Hydrodynamic loads from AQWA are based on potential-flow theory supplemented with Morison drag, while CFD loads come from an implicit RANS solver with a k-w SST turbulence model and a calibrated soft-spring representation of the mooring system. Structural analysis assumes linear static behavior, mild-steel material properties, and symmetry boundary conditions applied to a half-model. Only normal pressures from CFD are mapped to the FEA mesh; shear stresses are neglected due to their comparatively small magnitude. These data are suitable for engineers and analysts conducting WEC survivability assessments, structural design refinement, or validation of numerical modeling tools and should be interpreted within the context of the stated modeling assumptions and the PACWave South site conditions.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
33 This report evaluates extreme-wave loads and structural integrity of a self-reactive point absorber WEC using AQWA, CFD, and FEA to ensure survivability at the PACWave South site. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/670/Report_TEAMER-Assessing%20UM%20WEC%20Structural%20Integrity.pdf

Tags

  • self-reactive-two-body-point-absorber
  • mass-properties
  • sea-state
  • hydrokinetic
  • ansys-aqwa-time-domain-simulations
  • mooring-configuration
  • mhk
  • nx-nastran-femap
  • ansys-aqwa
  • wec
  • mesh-discretization
  • marine
  • openfoam
  • power
  • k-w-sst-turbulence-model
  • teamer
  • hydrodynamic-outputs
  • extreme-sea-states
  • fea
  • hydrodynamic-loads
  • cfd
  • computational-fluid-dynamics
  • modeling-data
  • device-geometry
  • structural
  • wave-energy-converter
  • energy

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