Abstract
Increasingly, marine renewable energies are taking over as one of the most relevant solutions to minimize dependence on fossil fuels. The management and exploitation of such energy requires the optimization of converters that will, later on, ensure the conversion of hydraulic energy into electrical energy; among these converters are the oscillating water column. An OWC is characterized by its simplicity and its effectiveness against turbulent ocean conditions. The performance of OWCs depends strongly on the geometrical parameters of the air chamber such as: chamber walls, width, thickness of the front wall, slope at the bottom of the chamber and size of the opening. In this sense, the manuscript presents a parametric approach to investigate, by experimental tests, the hydrodynamic properties and the performance of oscillating water column wave energy converter (OWC). The effects of some geometrical key parameters of the system are analyzed. The tests are carried out on a small‐size OWC. The work seems to be interesting in view of its experimental aspect. We have realized a prototype of an oscillating water column (OWC) which consists of a box (an air chamber) having the shape of parallelepipeds. The experimental results found by this study showed different optimums of: (a) the distance between the wave generator and the device (2 positions). (b) The depth of water in the hydraulic channel. (c) The immersion depth of the front wall of the chamber. (d) The opening at the bottom of the prototype. The results obtained show that the coupling of the geometrical parameters of the device and the conditions of installation leads to an improvement of the hydrodynamic performances of the OWC. The study also shows that the various optimums found give a considerable increase in the energy output.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J. Falnes, A review of wave-energy extraction. Mar. Struct. 20(4), 185–201 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marstruc.2007.09.001
B. Drew, A.R. Plummer, M.N. Sahinkaya, A review of wave energy converter technology. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part J. Power Energy 223(8), 887–902 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1243/09576509JPE782
A.F. de O. Falcão, Wave energy utilization: a review of the technologies. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 14(3), 899–918 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2009.11.003
T.V. Heath, A review of oscillating water columns. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 370(1959), 235–245 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0164
I. López, J. Andreu, S. Ceballos, I. Martínez de Alegría, I. Kortabarria, Review of wave energy technologies and the necessary power-equipment. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 27, 413–434 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.07.009
A. Muetze, J.G. Vining, Ocean wave energy conversion—a survey, in Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE Industry Applications Conference Forty-First IAS Annual Meeting, October, vol. 3 (2006), pp. 1410–1417. https://doi.org/10.1109/IAS.2006.256715
M. Shalby, D.G. Dorrell, P. Walker, A. Elhanafi, An experimental investigation into the wave power extraction of a small-scale fixed multi-chamber OWC device, in 2019 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), September (2019), pp. 4982–4987. https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCE.2019.8912191
N. Delmonte, D. Barater, F. Giuliani, P. Cova, G. Buticchi, Review of oscillating water column converters. IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. 52(2), 1698–1710 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2015.2490629
N. Ansarifard, S.S. Kianejad, A. Fleming, A. Henderson, S. Chai, Design optimization of a purely radial turbine for operation in the inhalation mode of an oscillating water column. Renew. Energy 152, 540–556 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.01.084
T. Setoguchi, S. Santhakumar, H. Maeda, M. Takao, K. Kaneko, A review of impulse turbines for wave energy conversion. Renew. Energy 23(2), 261–292 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0960-1481(00)00175-0
T. Setoguchi, M. Takao, Current status of self rectifying air turbines for wave energy conversion. Energy Convers. Manag. 47(15), 2382–2396 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2005.11.013
D.L. O’Sullivan, A.W. Lewis, Generator selection and comparative performance in offshore oscillating water column ocean wave energy converters. IEEE Trans. Energy Convers. 26(2), 603–614 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1109/TEC.2010.2093527
W. Sheng, A. Lewis, Power takeoff optimization to maximize wave energy conversions for oscillating water column devices. IEEE J. Ocean. Eng. 43(1), 36–47 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/JOE.2016.2644144
W. Sheng, Wave energy conversion and hydrodynamics modelling technologies: a review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 109, 482–498 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.04.030
S.E. Bouji, Z. Beidouri, N. Kamil, Design and optimization of an oscillating water column wave energy converter, in 2019 International Conference of Computer Science and Renewable Energies (ICCSRE), July (2019), pp. 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCSRE.2019.8807608
M.T. Morris-Thomas, R.J. Irvin, K.P. Thiagarajan, An investigation into the hydrodynamic efficiency of an oscillating water column. J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 129(4), 273–278 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2426992
W. Sheng, Motion and performance of BBDB OWC wave energy converters: I, hydrodynamics. Renew. Energy 138, 106–120 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.01.016
N. Dizadji, S.E. Sajadian, Modeling and optimization of the chamber of OWC system. Energy 36(5), 2360–2366 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2011.01.010
D. Ning, B. Guo, R. Wang, T. Vyzikas, D. Greaves, Geometrical investigation of a U-shaped oscillating water column wave energy device. Appl. Ocean Res. 97, 102105 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2020.102105
Z. Deng, L. Wang, X. Zhao, P. Wang, Wave power extraction by a nearshore oscillating water column converter with a surging lip-wall. Renew. Energy 146, 662–674 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.06.178
A. Çelik, A. Altunkaynak, Experimental and analytical investigation on chamber water surface fluctuations and motion behaviours of water column type wave energy converter. Ocean Eng. 150, 209–220 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2017.12.065
B. Bouali, S. Larbi, Contribution to the geometry optimization of an oscillating water column wave energy converter. Energy Procedia 36, 565–573 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2013.07.065
B. Bouali, S. Larbi, Sequential optimization and performance prediction of an oscillating water column wave energy converter. Ocean Eng. 131, 162–173 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2017.01.004
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
EL Bouji, S., Kamil, N. & Beidouri, Z. Experimental study of an oscillating water column wave energy converter based on regular waves. Mar Syst Ocean Technol 17, 147–163 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40868-022-00121-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40868-022-00121-2