Modeling and SIL simulation of an oscillating water column for ocean energy conversion

In this paper, an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device, installed in the breakwater at the harbor of Mutriku on the Basque coast in Spain has been modeled and simulated within Model-In-the-Loop (MIL) and Software-In-the-Loop (SIL) frame-works. The developed OWC model is formed by a Wells turbine and a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) for wave energy converting. The established nonlinear model of the OWC device has been simulated in MAT-LAB/Simulink environment within a MIL framework. The SIL emulation of the OWC converter has been investigated using the NI VeriStand tool in order to prepare for its Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) implementation based on a NI CompactRIO real-time target. All simulation results, obtained with MATLAB/Simulink and NI VeriStand, are analyzed and compared in order to validate the developed OWC model.