There has been a rapid increase in energy consumption globally, forcing renewable energy to play a vital role in meeting the demand. In the modern world, energy consumption from non-renewable resources is anticipated to undergo continuous depletion, whereas renewable resources are not likely to become extinct once consumed. The oscillating water column (OWC) is one of the renewable wave energy converters (WEC) widely used to extract energy from ocean waves. The installation of isolated OWCs in the marine environment is quite a challenging task and expensive. Hence, the concept of OWC integration with breakwater has been a topic of intense research. It can serve as a multipurpose structure for wave energy conversion as well as coastal protection measures. Several researchers identified that the hybrid OWC with breakwaters is a substitute for stand-alone WEC.
Extensive investigation on the hydrodynamic characteristics of hybrid OWC with different breakwaters has been carried out. In the present research work, it is observed that Semi-circular breakwater (SCBW) has several benefits and advantages compared to other breakwaters. Hence, this has been proposed for the hybrid OWC integration. Different configurations of oscillating water columns, such as variations in the OWC front lip walls as per the shape of SCBW, have been proposed in this study. The main objective is to identify the WEC integrated with SCBW that exhibits the most effective hydrodynamic performance. The three-dimensional numerical and experimental model has been envisaged to investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of these integrated OWCs.