Integrated Solution for Coastal Protection and Wave Energy Extraction

A detailed three-dimensional laboratory investigation on hydrodynamic performance of an array of oscillating water column (OWC) devices, combined with offshore detached breakwater (ODBW) subjected to oblique wave incidence was studied. A Froude scale of 1:20 was chosen for integrating five similar devices of OWC to the ODBW (OWCBW) and a series of experiments was carried out in a shallow wave basin for angle of wave approaching between 90 0 and 70 0 with reference to the front face of the structure with an angular decrement of 10 0 . The hydrodynamic performance was studied in terms of front wall outside pressure, wave amplification, air pressure, capture width, and relative capture width. The convergence of water waves due to three-dimensional effects concentrates high amount of energy in front of the array of OWCs for normal wave incidence. It makes a system to absorb larger amount of wave power of about 1.12 times of the given input power at the natural frequency of the system. This confirms that the array of OWC devices, exhibits better performance than in isolation. The performance of the system reduces with angular decrement due to peak of the wave front reaches the line front of OWCBW in different time along with wave dissipation over the breakwater. The natural frequency of the system was found to be lying in the vicinity of d/L p of 0.12 and unaltered for different angles of wave incidence.