Pumped storage hydropower plants are renewable energy systems that are effective in saving energy and solving electricity peak-on shortage. Seawater pumped storage hydropower plants are a novel type of pumped storage hydropower plant specifically supplying electric power for ocean islands with the support of solar energy and wind energy. Compared with traditional pumped storage hydropower plants that are constructed on the mainland, seawater pumped storage hydropower plants should take the influence of the complex marine environment, such as extreme waves and winds, into consideration. Taking the characteristics of waves near islands in the East China Sea as an example, we explored the transient hydraulic characteristics in the draft tube of a pump turbine under wave disturbance using a sliding grid interface and the detached eddy simulation (DES) turbulence model. By analyzing the characteristics of unsteady flow in the draft tube, the vortex characteristics under the Q criterion, the frequency characteristics of the pressure pulsation, the evolution law of the internal fluid, and the propagation law of the pressure pulsation were explored. For the situation without wave disturbance, an obvious eccentric vortex in the straight cone section of the draft tube was observed in the case where the opening of the guide vane was small. With the increase in the opening of the guide vane, the eccentric vortex gradually dissipated. For the situation with wave disturbance, the main frequency of the draft tube equaled the frequency of the wave disturbance, the maximum pressure pulsation at the selected monitoring points increased 5 to 15 times, and the superposition of the wave pressure pulsation signals and the draft tube pressure pulsation produced more low-frequency, high-amplitude pressure pulsation signals. Even though the pressure pulsation frequency spectrum varied a lot, the frequency domain of the pressure pulsation without wave disturbance still existed. In addition, the wave disturbance merely varied with the pressure of the draft tube. The influence of wave disturbance on the pressure distribution in the draft tube was relatively small. The results can provide a reference for the operation of seawater pumped storage hydropower plants.

Aiming at establishing the transient flow characteristics of gas–liquid two-phase flow in high-undulation water pipelines, based on the bubble distribution law measured using physical tests, the bubble distribution law function was input into the hump-pipe fluid domain model, and CFD numerical simulation was carried out for different flow rates and different air contents. The CLSVOF two-phase flow model and the RNG k-ε turbulence model were used to analyze the flow pattern evolution and pressure pulsation propagation in the process of gas–liquid two-phase flow through a hump pipe. The results show that the bubble size has a lognormal distribution, the equivalent diameter is between 3 mm and 10 mm, and the evolution of the flow pattern in the hump pipe is complex and violent. In the horizontal pipe section, there are three main flow patterns: bubble flow, wavy flow and segment plug flow. In the vertical pipe, there are two main flow patterns, slug flow and churning flow, and the flow pattern is affected by the flow rate and the air content rate. When air bubbles or air pockets in the pipeline flow through a certain area, this leads to a steep increase and decrease in the pressure pulsation amplitude in the region, and the pressure fluctuation is extremely frequent. Compared with the water flow rate, the air content is the main factor affecting the relative pressure pulsation amplitude under the condition of a 0.15-air content operating mode, which is generally approximately two to six times that of the 0-air content operating mode. The results of the research should facilitate the prediction of stagnant gas pipeline system bursts and water hammer protection, providing a theoretical basis and calculation parameters.