Hydrodynamic Performance of an OWC Wave Energy Converter with Triple Chambers in Waves

Abstract

An oscillating water column (OWC) device is a promising wave energy converter (WEC) to utilize ocean wave energy resources (Falca ？o and Henriques, 2016). The OWC chamber absorbs the kinetic energy of ocean waves, so its shape has a significant effect on the energy conversion performance. Recently, various studies on breakwater-WEC integration technology have been conducted to reduce the cost of OWC-WEC chamber construction and improve economic feasibility (Torre-Enciso et al., 2009; Arena et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2022). In the present study, the hydrodynamic performance of a multi-OWC chamber is investigated experimentally, focusing on its hydrodynamic behavior and energy conversion characteristics. A series of model tests were conducted for single- and triple-OWC chambers in the two-dimensional wave tank. The orifice was applied to induce a turbine-chamber interaction owing to the pressure drop. It was found that the triple OWC chamber improves the converted pneumatic power by reducing the sloshing motion of the internal fluid compared to the single OWC chamber (Kim and Nam, 2021). A numerical investigation was also conducted to simulate the hydrodynamic problem for a multiple OWC chamber. The validity of the present numerical method was examined by comparing it with the experimental data. Furthermore, numerical simulations were conducted on the breakwater-integrated multiple OWC chambers to investigate improving the hydrodynamic energy conversion performance.