Abstract

Sea wave characteristics could be the most crucial sloshing occurrence caused by OWCs. In this paper, an OWC with different inlet geometries has been investigated experimentally to optimize the performance and reduce sloshing. Eight wave gauges (WG) are applied to measure water free surface to determine the sloshing. The results showed that the converter performance decrease when sloshing occurs. To reduce sloshing, four inlet openings were installed at the inlet of OWC, and to achieve optimal efficiency in sloshing conditions, the geometry optimization done by genetic algorithm; then, the converter's performance with optimum inlet was experimentally investigated, sloshing phenomenon was observed in 4 frequencies in converter without opening; However, after installing the optimal opening, sloshing occurred in only one frequency, and also in this case, sloshing was 42 % reduced. The data correlation results showed a positive correlation between the frequency and the Top Free Surface of water inside the OWC (shown by a line called TFS) angle. At the same time, there is a negative correlation between the frequency and the flow rate, pressure difference, and power generated. The comparison of the converter results with opening and without opening shows that the correlation between frequency and other variables is always lower in the case with opening. Also, geometry optimization improved the sloshing frequency's 42.89 % performance.

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