Abstract
The motion of a floating OWC chamber in waves is studied taking account of fluctuating air pressure in the air chamber. An atmospheric pressure drop occurs across the upper opening of the chamber which causes not only hydrodynamic but also pneumatic added mass and damping forces to the floating chamber. A velocity potential in the water due to the free surface oscillating pressure patch is added to the conventional radiation-diffraction potential problem. the potential problem inside the chamber is formulated by making use of the Green integral equation associated with the Rankine Green function wile the outer problem with the Kelvin Green function. The two integral equations are solved simultaneously by making use of a matching boundary condition at the lower opening of the chamber to the outer water region. The chamber motion in the frequency domain is calculated for various values of parameters related to the atmospheric pressure drop. The present methods can also be sued for the analysis of air-cushion vehicle motion as well as for the design of a floating OWC wave energy absorber.