Abstract
This paper presents a preliminary investigation by numerical modelling into the importance of the air chamber design of an OWC wave energy device, with respect to its principle dimensions in the overall optimisation of the power conversion properties. A fixed, twodimensional, frequency domain model for finite water depth is used to describe the system behaviour. Global optimisation techniques have been applied in order to determine the maximal efficiency with respect to the following five free design parameters: submergence of the barrier, length of the chamber, height of the chamber above the water surface, diameter and rotational speed of a specific turbine design class. Wave spectra from the Pico site were used to represent the sea conditions.