• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.2 s.69
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• pp.22-28
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• 2006

The motion and wave drift forces of floating BBDB (backward-bent duct buoy) wave energy absorbers in regular waves are calculated, taking account of the oscillating surface-pressure due to the pressure drop in the air chamber above the oscillating water column, within the scope of the linear wave theory. A series of model tests has been conducted in order to order to verify the motion and time mean wave drift force reponses in regular waves at the ocean engineering basin, MOERI/KORDI. The pneumatic damping through an orifice-type duct for the BBDB wave energy device are deducted from experimental research. Numerical simulation for motion and drift force responses of the BBDB wave energy device, considering pneumatic damping coefficients, has been carried out, and the results are compared with those of model tests.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.42 no.1 s.139
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• pp.18-23
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• 2005

The transmission and reflection coefficiencies of a BBDB-type floating breakwater in water of finite depth are studied taking account of fluctuating air pressure in the air chamber. The wave potential is calculated by a hybrid integral equation consisting of a Green integral equations associated with the Rankiue Green function inside the BBDB and the Kelvin Green function outside. The transmission and reflection coefficients of the breakwater are obtained directly from the potential solution in the outer region.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.187-191
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• 2003

The motion and time-mean drift force of a 2-D floating BBDB in waves are studied with and without taking account of fluctuating air pressure in the air chamber. It has been found numerically that the drift for a of the BBDB is in the reverse direction of propagation of the incident waves over specific frequency ranges as found by McCormick through his experiment work. The drift force is calculated by Pinkster's near-field method. Since Maruo's formula method for the drift force is always positive, Maruo's formula is only approximate and should be replaced by the correct near-field method.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.53-58
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• 2012

An experimental study on the hydrodynamic performance of a backward bent duct buoy (BBDB) was performed in a 2D wave tank. The BBDB is one of the promising oscillating water column (OWC) types of floating wave energy converters. Two different corner-shaped BBDBs (sharp-corner and round-corner) were used to measure the maximum chamber surface elevations and body motions for various incident wave conditions, and their hydrodynamic characteristics were compared. In order to investigate the effect of the pneumatic pressure inside the chamber, the heave and pitch angle interacted with elevations were compared for both open chamber and partially open chamber BBDBs. From the comparison study, the deviation in the chamber surface elevations between the two shapes of BBDBs was found to be significant near the resonance period, which may be explained by viscous energy loss. It was also found that the pneumatic pressure noticeably affected the chamber surface elevation and body motions.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.513-528
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• 2013

A floating Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy converter, a Backward Bent Duct Buoy (BBDB), was simulated using a state-of-the-art, two-dimensional, fully-nonlinear Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) technique. The hydrodynamic performance of the floating OWC device was evaluated in the time domain. The acceleration potential method, with a full-updated kernel matrix calculation associated with a mode decomposition scheme, was implemented to obtain accurate estimates of the hydrodynamic force and displacement of a freely floating BBDB. The developed NWT was based on the potential theory and the boundary element method with constant panels on the boundaries. The mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian (MEL) approach was employed to capture the nonlinear free surfaces inside the chamber that interacted with a pneumatic pressure, induced by the time-varying airflow velocity at the air duct. A special viscous damping was applied to the chamber free surface to represent the viscous energy loss due to the BBDB's shape and motions. The viscous damping coefficient was properly selected using a comparison of the experimental data. The calculated surface elevation, inside and outside the chamber, with a tuned viscous damping correlated reasonably well with the experimental data for various incident wave conditions. The conservation of the total wave energy in the computational domain was confirmed over the entire range of wave frequencies.