ABSTRACT
This paper aims to describe preliminary work guidelines for the survivability study of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) using computational fluid dynamics. OpenFOAM has been used to analyse, first, the feasibility to reproduce an irregular sea state. Historical data from a near-shore buoy on Saint-Jean-de-Luz has been used for this purpose. Seconds, an Oscillating Water Column large scale geometry has been tested on a hydrostatic imbalance hydrodynamic situation. Finally, the OWC structure at the end of a large scale numerical wave flume has been studied facing a near-shore irregular sea state. Strengths and weaknesses regarding the numerical tool performance are presented and settle a point of departure to reproduce more storm events.
