Study on the breakwater caisson as oscillating water column facility

Abstract

The Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy convertor with the advantage of its simple geometrical construction and excellent stability is widely employed. Recently, perforated breakwaters have been often used as they can effectively reduce the wave reflection from and wave forces acting on the structures. Considering the similarity between the compartment of perforated caisson and the air chamber of OWC wave energy convertor, a new perforated caisson of breakwater is designed in this paper. The ordinary caisson is modified by installing facilities similar to the air chamber of OWC converter, but here they are utilized to dissipate the wave energy inside the caisson. Such an arrangement improves the stability of the caisson and reduces the construction cost by using the compartment of perforated caisson like using an air chamber. This innovation has both academic significance and important engineering value. For a new type of caisson, reliability analysis of the structure is necessary. Linear potential flow theory is applied to calculate the horizontal wave force acting on the caisson. The calculated results are compared with experimental data, showing the feasibility of the method. The Importance Sampling Procedure (ISP) is used to analyse the reliability of this caisson breakwater.