scholarly journals Numerical evaluation of a two-body point absorber wave energy converter with a tuned inerter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takehiko Asai ◽  
Keita Sugiura
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Structural Control ◽  
Resonance Effect ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Peak Period ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Linear Damping ◽  
Body Point

To increase the amount of energy captured from a vibrating buoy in the ocean with a simple mechanism, this paper proposes a two-body point absorber wave energy converter (WEC) with a tuned inerter. The tuned inerter mechanism consists of a spring, a linear damping element, and a component called inerter. This mechanism was originally proposed in the field of civil engineering as a structural control device which can absorb energy from vibrating structures effectively by taking advantage of the resonance effect of the inerter part. In addition to this mechanism where a generator is used as the linear damping element, the current of the generator for the power take-off system is controlled based on the algorithms proposed in literature to achieve further improvement of the power generation capability. In this research, a detailed analytical model of the proposed WEC is introduced and developed. Then the power generation performances of full scale WEC models are assessed through numerical simulation studies using WAMIT software and it is shown that the current controlled WEC with the proposed mechanism achieves 88% increase compared to the conventional one for the JONSWAP spectrum with 6 s peak period and 1 m significant wave height

Optimum Power Capture of a New Wave Energy Converter in Irregular Waves

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. Aggidis ◽  
Mohammad T. Rahmati ◽  
Robert V. Chaplin ◽  
Andrew P. McCabe ◽  
Majid A. Bhinder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Spectrum ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Irregular Waves ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Mean Power ◽  
Peak Period ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Power Capture

This paper presents the optimum power capture of a new point-absorber wave energy converter, in irregular waves. A stepwise control system for the wave energy converter (WEC) is developed. The control system is used to efficiently extract power from irregular waves where amplitudes vary from wave to wave. The Bretschneider spectrum is used in the experiment and the device is ‘tuned’ to the peak period of the sea state. It is shown that this WEC has a reasonable capture width in irregular waves. However, the optimum mean power depends on the wave spectrum, the shape of the collector body, its freeboard and the device pivot depth.

Application of Semi-active Inerter in a Two-body Point Absorber Wave Energy Converter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaoyan Wang ◽  
Yinlong Hu ◽  
Sijie Xiong ◽  
Feixiang Zheng ◽  
Haoyu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Body Point

scholarly journals Enhanced power absorption of a point absorber wave energy converter using a tuned inertial mass

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruriko Haraguchi ◽  
Takehiko Asai
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Energy Absorption ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Inertial Mass ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Primary System ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Power Absorption ◽  
Point Absorber ◽  
Power Generation Performance

A novel point absorber wave energy converter with a tuned inertial mass (TIM), which is capable of significantly increasing the energy absorption and broadening the effective bandwidth, is proposed in this paper. The mechanism of the TIM has originally been introduced in the field of civil engineering as a passive energy absorber for structures subjected to external loadings such as earthquakes. It relies on attaching an additional tuning spring and a rotational inertial mass to the primary system, to improve the energy absorption performance by amplifying the displacement of the damper. Thus, considering typical point absorbers modeled as a mass-spring-dashpot system similar way to civil structures, the application of the TIM to wave energy converters can be expected to have a significant effect. In this paper, numerical investigation on the power generation performance of a point absorber with the TIM is conducted under random sea waves. The amplitude response and power generation performance are compared with the conventional point absorber, considering both non-resonant and resonant buoy cases. It is shown that by properly designing the tuning spring stiffness and generator damping, the rotation of the generator can be amplified compared to the buoy, increasing the power absorption drastically.

scholarly journals A Piezoelectric Wave-Energy Converter Equipped with a Geared-Linkage-Based Frequency Up-Conversion Mechanism

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Shao-En Chen ◽  
Ray-Yeng Yang ◽  
Guang-Kai Wu ◽  
Chia-Che Wu
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Motion ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Gear Train ◽  
Piezoelectric Composite ◽  
Maximum Height ◽  
Resistive Load ◽  
Linkage Mechanism ◽  
Energy Converter

In this paper, a piezoelectric wave-energy converter (PWEC), consisting of a buoy, a frequency up-conversion mechanism, and a piezoelectric power-generator component, is developed. The frequency up-conversion mechanism consists of a gear train and geared-linkage mechanism, which converted lower frequencies of wave motion into higher frequencies of mechanical motion. The slider had a six-period displacement compared to the wave motion and was used to excite the piezoelectric power-generation component. Therefore, the operating frequency of the piezoelectric power-generation component was six times the frequency of the wave motion. The developed, flexible piezoelectric composite films of the generator component were used to generate electrical voltage. The piezoelectric film was composed of a copper/nickel foil as the substrate, lead–zirconium–titanium (PZT) material as the piezoelectric layer, and silver material as an upper-electrode layer. The sol-gel process was used to fabricate the PZT layer. The developed PWEC was tested in the wave flume at the Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory, Taiwan (THL). The maximum height and the minimum period were set to 100 mm and 1 s, respectively. The maximum voltage of the measured value was 2.8 V. The root-mean-square (RMS) voltage was 824 mV, which was measured through connection to an external 495 kΩ resistive load. The average electric power was 1.37 μW.

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
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