Experimental investigation on the hydrodynamic performance of a multi-chamber OWC-breakwater

Abstract

The multi-chamber Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device has recently become more attractive due to its potential high efficiency. In this paper, the hydrodynamic performance of a single-, dual- and triple-chamber OWC-breakwater are investigated experimentally. In the first instance, quantitative comparisons are implemented to understand the hydrodynamic performance of multi-chamber OWC-breakwaters. Specific attention has been dedicated to the hydrodynamic performance of capture width ratio (CWR), reflection coefficient, transmission coefficient, dissipation coefficient and effective frequency bandwidth. The investigation identified various findings that can be summarized as follows: i) hydrodynamic interactions between chambers in the multi-chamber OWC device has improved wave power extraction characteristics; ii) comparing with the conventional pontoon breakwater, the multi-chamber OWC-breakwater showed better wave attenuation performance in longer waves; iii) wave steepness is important for evaluating the performance of the multiple-chamber OWC-breakwater device; and iv) the implementation of the multi-chamber scheme broadens the effective frequency bandwidth (satisfied the condition of KT < 0.5 and η > 0.2) of OWC-breakwater.