Numerical investigation of the hydrodynamic properties of oscillating water column air chambers

Abstract

The oceans occupy nearly 71% of the Earth’s surface area. The ocean is rich in energy, and wave energy is one of its important components. Therefore, the study of wave energy generation devices is an important issue. In this paper, we analyze the effect of the size of the air chamber structure on the OWC (oscillating water column) wave energy conversion device under the action of unidirectional regular waves. To analyze the performance of the OWC device under real sea conditions, the wave climate at Sanmenxia is used as the experimental parameter. The performance and characteristic response with the variation of incident wave height, air chamber width and front wall thickness, are analyzed. The results show that the incident wave height, air chamber width, and front wall draft have significant effects on the performance of OWC. With the increase of incident wave height, the wave nonlinear effect increases. As the air chamber width decreases, the horizontal surface inside the air chamber undulates smoothly and the standing wave phenomenon disappears.