Oscillating water column wave energy converter incorporated into caisson breakwater

Abstract

A caisson breakwater provided with vertical duct 2″, room 3″, air-duct 4″, self-rectifying turbine 5″. Under the fluctuations of wave pressure on the outer opening 6, the water, alternately, enters and exits, so that the air in room 3″, alternately, is compressed and expands, and an alternate air flow is produced in the air-duct 4″. The vertical duct 2″ and the room 3′, form a U-conduit, and the air in the room 3″ acts as a spring. The eigenperiod of oscillations in said U-conduit grows as the width of the vertical duct 2″ is reduced and / or the length of said vertical duct is increased, and / or the width and height of the room 3″ is increased. The eigenperiod is fixed close to the wave period of the waves which convey the largest amount of wave energy in a year, so as to absorb a very large quantity of wave energy.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The invention discloses a caisson breakwater which is able to protect a port or a marine sheet of water with a small wave reflection, and is able to convert wave energy into electric power. BACKGROUND ART [0002] Caisson breakwaters (see e.g. Goda Y., Random Seas and Design of Maritime Structures, World Scientific, chap. 4, 2000; or Boccotti P., Wave Mechanics for Ocean Engineering, Elsevier, chap. 13, 2000) consist of caissons in reinforced concrete close to each other or linked together, on a foundation on the seabed. Each caisson is subdivided into a number of cells by vertical walls. Typically the caissons are manufactured in dry docks, towed and sunk. The cells are filled with sand and / or gravel and / or concrete or other kind of ballast. Then a superstructure is cast in concrete. [0003] Caisson breakwaters are excellent for protecting ports, because they can be built easily and are very resistant The only flaw is that they reflect nearly all the incident wa...

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