A Basic Study on Influence of Airchamber Volume on OWC Models to Power Conversion Performance

Abstract

Oscillating water column (OWC) types of wave energy converters have still several issues to be studied because system including wave-air-turbine interaction is complex. Besides, scale effects between small scale models and full scale models have not been definite. Although the effect in initial design of OWC devices might been able to be ignored, it is important to understand its characteristics exactly. The present study carried out forced oscillation tests in a water tank corresponding to the radiation problem. Three models whose scale are 1/1, 1/2 and 1/4 were used. In the forced oscillation test, we measured mean water elevation in an airchamber to predict the air flow rate and air pressure inside of the airchamber. From the mean water elevation and the air pressure, the primary power conversion was calculated. As a result, the pressure and the elevation were affected by not only the scale reduction but also the difference of airchamber volume. Variation of the volume of an airchamber affected on hydrodynamic performance sensitively.