A Field Experiment on Wave Forces on an Energy-Absorbing Breakwater
1
Department of Civil, Energy, Environmental and Material Engineering (DICEAM), University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria Via Graziella, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
2
Department of Information Engineering, Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy (DIIES), University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria Via Graziella, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Energies 2020, 13(7), 1563; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13071563
Received: 18 January 2020 / Revised: 27 February 2020 / Accepted: 20 March 2020 / Published: 27 March 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrokinetic Energy Conversion: Technology, Research, and Outlook)
The U-OWC is a caisson breakwater embodying a device for wave energy absorption. Under the wave action, the pressure acting on the upper opening of the vertical duct fluctuates, producing a water discharge alternatively entering/exiting the plant through the U-duct, formed by the duct and the chamber. The interaction between incoming waves and the water discharge alters the wave pressure distribution along the wave-beaten wall of this breakwater compared with the pressure distributions on a vertical pure reflecting wall. As a consequence, the horizontal wave forces produced on the breakwater are also different. A small scale U-OWC breakwater was put off the eastern coast of the Strait of Messina (Southern Italy) to measure the horizontal wave force. Experimental results were compared with Boccotti’s and Goda’s wave pressure formulas, carried out for conventional upright breakwaters, to check their applicability on the U-OWC breakwaters. Both models are suitable for design of U-OWC breakwaters even if they tend to overestimate by up to 25% the actual horizontal loads on the breakwater. Indeed, the greater the absorption of the energy is, the lower the wave pressure on the breakwater wall is.
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Keywords:
Oscillating Water Column; wave loads; field experiment; pressure distribution; absorption coefficient; caisson breakwater; Goda’s formula
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MDPI and ACS Style
Filianoti, P.G.F.; Gurnari, L. A Field Experiment on Wave Forces on an Energy-Absorbing Breakwater. Energies 2020, 13, 1563. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13071563
AMA Style
Filianoti PGF, Gurnari L. A Field Experiment on Wave Forces on an Energy-Absorbing Breakwater. Energies. 2020; 13(7):1563. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13071563
Chicago/Turabian StyleFilianoti, Pasquale G.F.; Gurnari, Luana. 2020. "A Field Experiment on Wave Forces on an Energy-Absorbing Breakwater" Energies 13, no. 7: 1563. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13071563
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