Abstract
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) requires a large amount of cold seawater. The traditional rigid pipe, semi-rigidly fixed onto the ship bottom is not easy to install and disassemble, so the Floating Flexible Cold Water Pipe (FFCWP) flexibly connected to the ship is proposed. A small FFCWP was designed, fabricated, and successfully installed and recovered in the sea. The flexible pipe adopts commercially available fire ventilation snake pipe. The pipe wall material strength must be improved in the future. Assuming that the drag coefficient Cd value is 1.5, a numerical calculation is employed to simulate the FFCWP attitude from the action of ocean currents. Ocean currents cause the lower pipe inlet to rise. The main influencing factors on pipe design are pipe radius, ocean current speed and pipe weight per unit pipe length. Because the FFCWP ascension quite large as the ocean current becomes greater than 0.5 knots, it is recommended that the grazing OTEC plant ship allow pipe drifting when generating electricity.
Recommended Citation
Liang, Nai Kuang and Peng, Hai Kuan
(2023)
"A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON FLOATING FLEXIBLE OTEC COLD WATER PIPE,"
Journal of Marine Science and Technology: Vol. 31:
Iss.
4, Article 3.
DOI: 10.51400/2709-6998.2710
Available at:
https://jmstt.ntou.edu.tw/journal/vol31/iss4/3
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Fresh Water Studies Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Ocean Engineering Commons, Oceanography Commons, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons