ABSTRACT
The beneficial aspects of a novel concept of dual chamber OWC devices deployed in the stepped sea bottom are explored showing the improved the energy absorption of the system. An in-house Boundary Element code has been developed to investigate the performance of the system. The linear potential theory in the frequency domain has been implemented to formulate the mathematical problem. Air compressibility effects have been considered. Various geometrical configurations of the system have been studied and the level of the efficiency improvement achieved has been assessed. It has been found that the hydrodynamic performance of the dual chamber OWC system which has been installed in the properly designed stepped sea bottom condition is significantly improved up to 75% in a broad range of wave frequencies compared to the equivalent single chamber device (with the same width and immersion depth) in the uniform water depth.
