Numerical investigations on the hydrodynamic performances of an isolated OWC and its integration with a semi-circular breakwater

Abstract

The exploration of multifunctional systems to harvest wave energy has become increasingly prominent in recent research. This paper presents a comprehensive investigation into the effectiveness of utilizing a wave energy converter (WEC) not only for energy generation but also as a coastal protection measure. Among the various types of WECs, the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) stands out as particularly promising due to its inherent advantages and notable efficiency. The versatility of the OWC allows for standalone installation or integration into hybrid systems, such as combining it with breakwaters. While numerous studies have examined the integration of OWCs with Caisson-type breakwaters, research on their integration with Semi-circular breakwaters (SCBW) is scarce. This study fills this gap by utilizing the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, OpenFOAM, to analyze the hydrodynamic performance of an OWC embedded within an SCBW. The numerical findings are validated against existing experimental data, enabling a thorough comparative analysis between the performance of an isolated OWC and a hybrid OWC integrated with SCBW. The investigation delves into various parameters, including wave amplification factor, chamber air and water pressure, external water pressure, energy transfer efficiency from chamber water to air, and wave run-up over the SCBW face. The results conclusively demonstrate that an OWC integrated with SCBW exhibits superior hydrodynamic performance compared to standalone configurations.