Validation and verification of numerical model for simulation of the operating principle of the oscillating water column device

Initially, this work presents the validation of an axisymmetric computational model employing the Air-Methodology for the numerical simulation of a sea wave energy converter into electrical energy of the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) type, through experimental results of turbulent flow over a downward step; a characteristic that resembles the airflow within an OWC device. Subsequently, the model was verified with numerical results produced in a study where turbulent airflow over the downward step was simulated, and the validation of these results was also performed with the experimental data previously used. The model that uses κ−ε standard for turbulence, Enhanced Wall Function as the wall function, and SIMPLE for pressure-velocity coupling, achieved a processing time of approximately 30 min and presented an average Mean Absolute Error (MAE) value of 1.25% during validation. In verification, the MAE was less than 4% for the x-component and less than 1.5% for the y-component.