Abstract
A novel U-shaped oscillating water column device (UOWC) is proposed in this paper, where the front bottom-standing wall is considered to be flexible rather than rigid. To study the performance of the flexible UOWC, a theoretical model is developed using linear potential flow theory, dry mode expansion, and eigenfunction expansion methods. A Galerkin approximation approach is adopted to deal with the strong singularities at the sharp edges of the device’s front bottom-standing and front surface-piercing wall. Our results show that three peaks of the frequency response of the maximum wave power absorption efficiency can be obtained, two of which are determined by the natural frequencies of the effective oscillating water column and the 1st natural mode of the flexible wall, respectively, and the remaining one is due to wave near-trapping.