A PIV investigation of OWC operation in regular, polychromatic and irregular waves

The operation of the OWC in regular, polychromatic and irregular waves was compared using a novel application of normalised histograms and revealed numerous differences including the frequency and size of vortices. A linear relationship was identified between total kinetic energy and energy contained within vortices in the irregular wave. Polychromatic waves successfully represented the power output of the device in irregular waves but more investigation is required into whether they can represent the impact of vortices on device operation. The techniques developed enable evaluation of WEC design changes using PIV in the time domain, and therefore in a more realistic sea state.