Experimental Results From an Offshore Wave Energy Converter

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Boström ◽  
Erik Lejerskog ◽  
Simon Tyrberg ◽  
Olle Svensson ◽  
Rafael Waters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Nonlinear Load ◽  
Swedish West Coast ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Measuring Station ◽  
Grid Connection ◽  
Offshore Wave ◽  
Voltage Conversion

An offshore wave energy converter (WEC) was successfully launched at the Swedish west coast in the middle of March 2006. The WEC is based on a permanent magnet linear generator located on the sea floor driven by a point absorber. A measuring station has been installed on a nearby island where all measurements and experiments on the WEC have been carried out. The output voltage from the generator fluctuates both in amplitude and frequency and must therefore be converted to enable grid connection. In order to study the voltage conversion, the measuring station was fitted with a six pulse diode rectifier and a capacitive filter during the autumn of 2006. The object of this paper is to present a detailed description of the Lysekil research site. Special attention will be given to the power absorption by the generator when it is connected to a nonlinear load.

Experimental Results From an Offshore Wave Energy Converter

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Bostro¨m ◽  
Erik Lejerskog ◽  
Simon Tyberg ◽  
Olle Svensson ◽  
Rafael Waters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Swedish West Coast ◽  
Grid Connection ◽  
Linear Load ◽  
Non Linear Load ◽  
Offshore Wave ◽  
Voltage Conversion

An offshore wave energy converter (WEC) was successfully launched at the Swedish west coast in the middle of March 2006. The WEC is based on a permanent magnet linear generator located on the ocean floor driven by a point absorber. A measuring station has been installed on a nearby island where all measurements and experiments on the WEC have been carried out. The output voltage from the generator fluctuates both in amplitude and frequency and must therefore be converted to enable grid connection. In order to study the voltage conversion, the measure station was fitted with a six pulse diode rectifier and a capacitive filter during the autumn of 2006. The object of this paper is to present a detailed description of the existing wave energy system of the Islandsberg project. Special attention will be given to the power absorption by the generator when it is connected to a non linear load.

Influence of Generator Damping on Peak Power and Variance of Power for a Direct Drive Wave Energy Converter

2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Stålberg ◽  
Rafael Waters ◽  
Oskar Danielsson ◽  
Mats Leijon
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Peak Power ◽  
Load Resistance ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Damping Factor ◽  
Direct Drive ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Swedish West Coast ◽  
Electric System ◽  
Point Absorber

The first offshore prototype of a wave energy converter system has been launched off the Swedish west coast. The concept is based on a point absorber directly coupled to a linear generator located on the ocean floor. The wave energy converter is part of a research project that will study the electric system of ten units forming a small farm of wave power plants as they are linked and connected to an electric grid. A full scale farm will consist of a large number of interconnected units. The chosen direct drive system reduces the mechanical complexity of the converter but has repercussions on the electric system. The output from the generator will vary with the speed of the point absorber, leading to large fluctuations of power on the second scale. This has implications on both the individual generator and on the system as a whole. The hydrodynamic behavior of the point absorber depends, to a large extent, on the damping of the generator. The damping, in turn, can be remotely controlled by changing the load resistance. It has previously been shown that this has a large influence on the power absorbed by the wave energy converter. This paper investigates the peak power, the translator speed, and the variance of the power at different sea states and for different levels of damping. The peak power has an impact on the design of the generator and the required ability, for a single unit, to handle electric overloads. The momentum of the translator is directly proportional to its speed. The speed is thus important for the design of the end stop. The variance of the power of one unit will have an impact on the farm system behavior. The study is based on two and a half months of experimental measurements on the prototype wave energy converter and a wave measurement buoy. The aim is to analyze whether load control strategies may influence the dimensioning criteria for the electric system and the generator. The results are compared to previously investigated relationships between the absorbed mean power and the load resistance as a function of sea state. In the study, it was found that the maximum power is approximately proportional to the average power, while the maximum translator speed and standard deviation decrease as the damping factor is increased.

Influence of Generator Damping on Peak Power and Variance of Power for a Direct Drive Wave Energy Converter

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Sta˚lberg ◽  
Rafael Waters ◽  
Oskar Danielsson ◽  
Mats Leijon
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Peak Power ◽  
Load Resistance ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Direct Drive ◽  
Electrical System ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Swedish West Coast ◽  
Point Absorber

The first full-scale offshore prototype of a novel wave energy converter system has been launched off the Swedish west coast. The concept is based on a point absorber directly coupled to a linear generator located on the ocean floor. The wave energy converter is part of a research project that will study the electrical system of 10 units forming a small farm of wave power plants as they are linked and connected to an electric grid. A full scale farm will consist of a large number of interconnected units. The chosen direct drive system reduces the mechanical complexity of the converter but has repercussions on the electrical system. The output from the generator will vary with the speed of the point absorber, leading to large fluctuations of power on the second scale. This has implications on both the individual generator and on the system as a whole. The hydrodynamic behavior of the point absorber depends, to a large extent, on the damping of the generator. The damping, in turn, can be controlled remotely by changing the load resistance. It has previously been shown that this has a large influence on the power absorbed by the wave energy converter. This paper investigates the peak power, the translator speed and the variance of the power at different sea states and for different levels of damping. The peak power has an impact on the design of the generator and the required ability, for a single unit, to handle electrical overloads. The speed of the translator is directly proportional to its momentum. It is thus important for the design of the end stop. The variance of the power of one unit will have an impact on the farm system behavior. The study is based on two and a half months of experimental measurements on the prototype wave energy converter and a wave measurement buoy. The aim is to analyze whether load control strategies may influence the dimensioning criteria for the electrical system and the generator. The results are compared with previously investigated relationships between absorbed mean power and load resistance as a function of sea state. In the study it was found that the maximum power is approximately proportional to the average power while maximum translator speed and standard deviation decrease as the damping factor is increased.

scholarly journals Passive Model Predictive Control on a Two-Body Self-Referenced Point Absorber Wave Energy Converter

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1731
Author(s):  
Dan Montoya ◽  
Elisabetta Tedeschi ◽  
Luca Castellini ◽  
Tiago Martins
Keyword(s):  
Model Predictive Control ◽  
Predictive Control ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Power Flow ◽  
Linear Constraints ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Control Technique ◽  
Computational Time ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Point Absorber

Wave energy is nowadays one of the most promising renewable energy sources; however, wave energy technology has not reached the fully-commercial stage, yet. One key aspect to achieve this goal is to identify an effective control strategy for each selected Wave Energy Converter (WEC), in order to extract the maximum energy from the waves, while respecting the physical constraints of the device. Model Predictive Control (MPC) can inherently satisfy these requirements. Generally, MPC is formulated as a quadratic programming problem with linear constraints (e.g., on position, speed and Power Take-Off (PTO) force). Since, in the most general case, this control technique requires bidirectional power flow between the PTO system and the grid, it has similar characteristics as reactive control. This means that, under some operating conditions, the energy losses may be equivalent, or even larger, than the energy yielded. As many WECs are designed to only allow unidirectional power flow, it is necessary to set nonlinear constraints. This makes the optimization problem significantly more expensive in terms of computational time. This work proposes two MPC control strategies applied to a two-body point absorber that address this issue from two different perspectives: (a) adapting the MPC formulation to passive loading strategy; and (b) adapting linear constraints in the MPC in order to only allow an unidirectional power flow. The results show that the two alternative proposals have similar performance in terms of computational time compared to the regular MPC and obtain considerably more power than the linear passive control, thus proving to be a good option for unidirectional PTO systems.

High-performance and robust bistable point absorber wave energy converter

2021 ◽  
pp. 108767
Author(s):  
Ru Xi ◽  
Haicheng Zhang ◽  
DaolinXu ◽  
Huai Zhao ◽  
Ramnarayan Mondal
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Point Absorber

scholarly journals Linear and nonlinear hydrodynamic models for dynamics of a submerged point absorber wave energy converter

2020 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 106828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin W. Schubert ◽  
William S.P. Robertson ◽  
Benjamin S. Cazzolato ◽  
Mergen H. Ghayesh
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Hydrodynamic Models ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Linear And Nonlinear

scholarly journals Loads on a Point-Absorber Wave Energy Converter in Regular and Focused Extreme Wave Events

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirini Katsidoniotaki ◽  
Edward Ransley ◽  
Scott Brown ◽  
Johannes Palm ◽  
Jens Engström ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Train ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Extreme Waves ◽  
Extreme Wave ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Wave Energy Converters ◽  
Extreme Loads

Abstract Accurate modeling and prediction of extreme loads for survivability is of crucial importance if wave energy is to become commercially viable. The fundamental differences in scale and dynamics from traditional offshore structures, as well as the fact that wave energy has not converged around one or a few technologies, implies that it is still an open question how the extreme loads should be modeled. In recent years, several methods to model wave energy converters in extreme waves have been developed, but it is not yet clear how the different methods compare. The purpose of this work is the comparison of two widely used approaches when studying the response of a point-absorber wave energy converter in extreme waves, using the open-source CFD software OpenFOAM. The equivalent design-waves are generated both as equivalent regular waves and as focused waves defined using NewWave theory. Our results show that the different extreme wave modeling methods produce different dynamics and extreme forces acting on the system. It is concluded that for the investigation of point-absorber response in extreme wave conditions, the wave train dynamics and the motion history of the buoy are of high importance for the resulting buoy response and mooring forces.

scholarly journals Design and simulation of point absorber wave energy converter

2021 ◽  
Vol 321 ◽  
pp. 03003
Author(s):  
Devesh Singh ◽  
Anoop Singh ◽  
Akshoy Ranjan Paul ◽  
Abdus Samad
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Response Analysis ◽  
Ocean Energy ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Time Response Analysis ◽  
Floating System ◽  
Energy Harvesting System

The paper aims to design and simulation of a wave energy harvesting system commonly known as point absorber for Ennore port located in the coastal area of Chennai, India. The geographical condition of India, which is surrounded by the three sides with seas and ocean, has enormous opportunity for power production through wave energy harvesting system. The wave energy converter device is a two-body floating system and its both parts are connected by power take-off unit which acts as spring mass damper system. In this paper, the hydrodynamic diffraction, stability analysis, frequency, and time response analysis is carried out on ansys-aqwa. The numerical results are compared with the results obtained from the similar experiments for validation of CFD solver. Effects of the properties featuring wave characteristics including wave height and wave period of Ennore port on the energy conversion, Froude-Krylov and diffraction force, response amplitude operator (RAO) are studied. Based on the study, float diameter, draft, geometry, and varying damping coefficient for power generation are optimized. Finally, the optimally designed point absorber is simulated as per Indian ocean energy harvesting standard and mass of the system, heave dimension, diffraction forces, and pressure variations are computed.

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