NUMERICAL STUDY FOR ENHANCEMENT OF PNEUMATIC PERFORMANCE FOR AN OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN

An Oscillating water column (OWC) is one of the wave energy converters (WECs) that converts wave energy to electrical energy through oscillation of rise and fall of water in a semi-submerged structure called air chamber. Existing OWC designs are mostly for the moderate wave climate, thus imposing the limitations to the use of OWC in low wave climate. In this study, conventional OWC design is modified and two different designs of the OWC chamber are proposed i.e. circular OWC and rectangular OWC for low wave energy climate, and are analysed through numerical simulation in the Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) model.