On the measurement of the wave power captured by a submerged U-OWC using a temperature sensor

To calculate the amount of wave energy captured by an oscillating water column (OWC) converter, we need to measure some fluid dynamic quantities, like pressure and discharge fluctuations, along the fluid motion. In general, direct measurements of the particle velocity is a complicated matter, especially on OWCs provided by a U-duct, in which the presence of the velocity sensor disturbs the motion field. A method to evaluate the energy captured by the plant, by measuring pressure and temperature of the air inside the plenum chamber is here investigated. In this work, we have analyzed the performance of the measurement technique, investigating the influence of the time response of the temperature sensor, through a numerical experiment, using the CFD. We have observed that the measurement of the captured power is strongly affected by the time response of the sensor. Therefore, we have designed a measurement optimization technique which actively corrects the temperature measurements, compensating for the errors in the estimation of the energy flux, due to insufficient response time.