Behavior of u-oscillating water column arrays

Realistic applications of the U-Oscillating Water Column (U-OWC) involve the use of multiple U-OWC chambers installed in adjacent caissons. Current analytical models neglect this feature as they are based on two-dimensional approaches. This paper describes an approach for estimating the hydrodynamic parameters associated with a U-OWC array and then presents the integro-differential equations used for calculating the array response in the time domain. The approach is based on the combination of Fourier transform and domain decomposition techniques. Numerical results are shown under the assumption of regular incident waves. It is seen that the power available to the turbine of a U-OWC chamber decreases of about 9% with respect to the power associated with an isolated U-OWC. However, the numerical studies do not show the occurrence of sudden drops or magnifications of the power output in frequency domain.