A one-dimentional flow analysis in the OWC device for wave energy conversion

The main purpose of this paper is to present a 1-D modeling with simple equations to describe the behavior in the oscillating water column device (OWC) used for wave energy conversion. The free water surface inside the chamber is considered as a piston water mass moving up and down due to the successive incident waves from the sea. Analyses are focused on the temporal variation of wave height inside OWC, air flow rate, pressure, and pneumatic power, also, the flow RMS characteristics. The turbine has been simulated with a quadratic law relating the pressure drop to air flow rate in both inhalation and exhalation operations. In the present work, only the case of monochromatic sinusoidal excitations has been considered. A great attention has been paid to examine the chamber and turbine coupling by performing simulations considering some values of wave frequencies and quadratic law constants.