Optimisation of turbine-induced damping for an OWC wave energy converter using a RANS–VOF numerical model

• We implement and validate a RANS–VOF model of an OWC wave energy converter.
• We study the OWC performances for different wave conditions and damping values.
• Damping is the main factor of OWC performances, closely followed by period.
• There is an optimum damping for each wave condition.
• We develop a procedure to determine the optimum turbine-chamber coupling.

The performance of an oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter depends on many factors, among which the incident wave conditions, the tidal level or the coupling between the chamber and the air turbine. In this work a 2D numeric