Investigation of the robustness of an Oscillating Water Column breakwater under extreme wave conditions

Investigation of the robustness of an Oscillating Water Column breakwater under extreme wave conditions

Baez Rivero, Inés (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)

Bricker, J.D. (mentor)
Aarninkhof, S.G.J. (graduation committee)
Jarquin Laguna, A. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management (CoMEM)

2018-07-10

The work presented will investigate the usage of Oscillating Water Columns (OWC) in Coastal Structures to understand the functionality requirements and the viability of installing these devices in caisson breakwaters. The main focus is put on the efficiency of the design, to achieve optimum results and to avoid possible failure of the structure. Comparison of different designs, J-OWC and U-OWC, and their behaviour under extreme conditions will be analysed to determine the most suitable design.
The first phase of this work, is the validation of the model. Laboratory experiments of an OWC near design operating conditions are conducted in the WaterLab facilities at TUDelft. These laboratory results will validate the numerical models carried out using ANSYS Fluent.
The second phase of this work will consist of a numerical modelling to investigate the response of the OWC to the extreme wave conditions experienced by the Mutriku, Spain OWC during the storm of 2009. Finally, the structural response of the OWC will be analysed, using MIDAS Civil.
Since 1970s, the first prototypes of OWC were design and tested. This technology has improved considerably, however there are still issues in the field that can be improved. It is expected that with the reproduction of the numerical model, improvements for higher efficiency of the OWC can then be applied in the analysis for further incorporation on coastal structures, focusing in caisson breakwaters in this master thesis.

Wave Energy Converter (WEC)
Oscillating Water Column (OWC)
Structure robustness
Caisson Breakwater

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0ec60e8b-28a3-4005-8289-4195a576a7ae

52.0126341, 4.3555860

The Erasmus+: Erasmus Mundus MSc in Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management is an integrated programme including mobility organized by five European partner institutions, coordinated by Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Student theses

master thesis

© 2018 Inés Baez Rivero