Review of the Influence of Oceanographic and Geometric Parameters on Oscillating Water Columns

Abstract

Wave energy is one of the most powerful sources of energy on our planet, but its exploitation is difficult. Much current research on renewable energy is focused on how to harness ocean energy. However, wave energy converter (WEC) technology is still immature and how to reach high levels of efficiency is still unknown. In coming years, this field is likely to reach a high level of development, so it is important to continue research on the improvement of the performance of these devices. One of the most important wave energy converters is the oscillating water column (OWC). The main difficulty of OWCs is that they have to provide good rates of hydrodynamic efficiency for many different types of sea states (different periods, heights, wavelengths, etc.). The other big concern is the optimization of the geometric parameters of the device. This research paper is focused on these two big concerns: how oceanographic parameters affect the hydrodynamic behavior of an OWC and its geometric optimization. Different studies about how wave and geometric characteristics affect the performance of an OWC are reviewed and relationships between these and the hydrodynamic performance of an OWC are finally outlined and summed up.

Keywords

• oscillating water column
• hydrodynamic efficiency
• geometric optimization
• OWC turbines
• multipurpose platforms
• breakwater-integrated OWCs