Laboratory Investigation on Hydrodynamic Performance of an Innovative Aeration Device with a Wave-Driven Heaving Buoy
Coastal seawater quality is of significance for the environment, ecology and fisheries. In recent years, the hypoxia or anoxia problems of bottom seawater aggravated due mainly to the seawater stratification and eutrophication. This paper addresses an innovative aeration device with a wave-driven heaving buoy to enhance the dissolved oxygen concentration for bottom water. A series of physical experiments was conducted to investigate its hydrodynamic performance and air flow rate. The response amplitude of heaving components and the average value of air flow rate were examined with the related parameters, including incident wave height, incident wave steepness and aeration depth. It was found that with increasing incident wave height, the average heaving displacement and the average air flow rate increase respectively. With the increase of incident wave steepness, the relative value of average heaving displacement increases obviously for high wave period scenarios, it increases slightly for small wave period scenarios in comparison and the relative value of air flow rate increases evidently. With the increase of aeration depth, the average heaving displacement and the average air flow rate decrease respectively. With the increase of relative aeration depth, the relative value of average heaving displacement and the relative value of air flow rate decrease respectively. In addition, the dimensional analysis and the least squares methods were used to obtain the prediction formulas for the average heaving displacement and the average air flow rate, and they agreed well with the related experimental data.