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Perforated and OWC Caissons
Oral
Krisna Pawitan, MSc
final year PhD candidate
University of Edinburgh
William Allsop, BSc, MICE
Director, William Allsop Consulting; PhD student
University of Edinburgh
Tom Bruce
School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh
In 2009, four of 16 chambers in the Mutriku Oscillating Water Column (OWC) breakwater were damaged by storms, probably by slam within the chambers. To minimize such risks, characterising wave conditions to avoid such impact loads may be necessary. This paper uses data from large scale testing in the GWK to quantify loads and performance. In-chamber impact pressures of up to 8 ρgH were recorded on the chamber ceiling, associated with the ‘sloshing’ observed in the large scale physical model test. The paper has identified wave/structure configurations where “sloshing” is most likely, and therefor feeds into the design processes