• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.1303-1309
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• 2015

The behavior and flow characteristics of the floating wave energy converter were analyzed by using CFD in this study. The average significant wave height was confirmed as 0.5~2.0m from the Korean coastal sea area. This study was carried out by selecting a range of 1.0~1.6m in the wave height to simulate the operations of realistic wave energy converter system. The principle of a piston wave maker was applied in order to produce periodic wave. The behavior of the wave energy converter and the state of the wave overtopping according to the generated periodic wave were confirmed through the unsteady three-dimensional flow analysis. It was found that the wave overtopping rate according to the generated periodic wave was in range of the 11.6~30.0 kg/s.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.705-709
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• 2008

In the sea various methods have been conducted to capture wave energy which include the use of pendulums, pneumatic devices, etc. Floating devices, such as a cavity resonance device take advantages of both the water motion and the wave induced motions of the floating body itself. The wave energy converter is known commercially as the WAGB(Wave Activated Generator Buoy) and is used in some commercially available buoys to power navigation aids such as lights and horns. This wave energy converter consists of a circular flotation body which contains a vertical water column that has free communication with the sea. A theoretical analysis of this power generated by a pneumatic type wave energy converter is performed and the results obtained from the analysis are used for a real wave energy converter buoy. This paper is shown to have an optimum value for which maximum power is obtained at a given resonant wave period Also, the length of the internal water column corresponds to that of the water mass in the water column. If designed properly, wave energy converter can take advantage not only of the cavity resonance, but also qf the heaving motion of the buoy. Finally, simulation is performed with a LabVIEW program and the simulation results are applied to a wave energy simulator for modifying design data for a wave energy converter.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.28-35
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• 2011

In this paper, the wave-induced motion characteristics of a floating pendulor are investigated numerically. A floating pendulor is a movable-body-type wave energy converter. This device consists of three main parts (floater, pendulum, and damping plates). In order to obtain the hydrodynamic coefficients and wave exciting forces acting on floating bodies, a higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) using a wave Green function is applied to the present problems. The hinged motion of a pendulum is simulated by applying the penalty method. In order to obtain a more realistic motion response for a pendulor, numerical body damping is included. First, the wave force and motion characteristics of just a floater are observed with respect to different shape parameters. Then, a coupled analysis of a floater, pendulum, and damping plates is carried out. The relative pitch velocity and wave forces acting on the floating pendulor are compared with those of a fixed pendulor.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.244-255
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• 2019

Interest in renewable energy has been increasing in recent years for many reasons, and there have been many studies on new types of wave energy converters and mechanisms for them. However, in this paper, motion characteristics of a wave energy converter with a wave activating body type is studied with an experiment. In order to conduct the experiment, a simple wave activating body type's wave energy converter is proposed. Experimental variations consist of connection type and location. The connection type controls the rotation motions of structures, and the connection location controls the distance between structures. The movement of floating structures, such as rotation, velocity, and acceleration, is measured with a potentiometer and a motion capture camera. Using the recorded data, the motion characteristics derived from the experimental variations are investigated.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.169-174
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• 2008

Floating devices, such as a cavity resonance device take advantage of both the water motion and the wave induced motions of the floating body itself. The wave energy converter is known commercially as the WAGB(Wave Activated Generator Buoy) and is used in some commercially available buoys to power navigation aids such as lights and horns. This wave energy converter consists of a circular floatation body which contains a vertical center pipe that has free communication with the sea. A theoretical analysis of this power generated by a pneumatic type wave energy converter is performed and the results obtained from the analysis are used for a real wave energy converter for buoy. This paper presents the analysis results and the design method for the WEC(Wave Energy Converter), and the associate results are application to the commercially available WEC for buoy. Maximum performance of WEC occurs at resonance with driving waves. The analysis of WEC is performed with LabVIEW program, and the design method of WEC for buoy is suggested in this paper.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.8
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• pp.710-720
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• 2016

The Floating Wave Energy Convertor (FWEC) mooring design has an important requirement associated with the fact that, for a wave energy converter, the mooring connections may interact with their oscillations, possibly modifying its energy absorption significantly. It is therefore important to investigate what might be the most suitable mooring design according to the converter specifications and take into account the demands placed on the moorings in order to assure their survivability. The objective of this study is to identify a computational fluid dynamics method for investigating the effects of coupling a wave energy device with a mooring system. Using the commercial software ANSYS AQWA and ANSYS FLUENT, a configuration was studied for different displacements from the equilibrium position, load demands on the moorings, and internal fluid motion. These results and findings form a basis for future efforts in computational model development, design refinement, and investigation of station keeping for FWEC units.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.222-228
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• 2016

Almost 70% of the earth is covered by the ocean. Extracting the power available in the ocean using a wave energy converter has been seen to be eco-friendly and renewable. This study focuses on developing a method for analyzing a wave energy device that uses a cross-flow turbine. The motion of the ocean wave causes an internal bi-directional flow of water and the cross-flow turbine is able to rotate in one direction. This device is considered of double-hull structure, and because of this structure, sea water does not come into contact with theturbine. Due to this, the problem of befouling on the turbine is avoided. This study shows specific relationship for wave length and several motions.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.513-528
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• 2013

A floating Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy converter, a Backward Bent Duct Buoy (BBDB), was simulated using a state-of-the-art, two-dimensional, fully-nonlinear Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) technique. The hydrodynamic performance of the floating OWC device was evaluated in the time domain. The acceleration potential method, with a full-updated kernel matrix calculation associated with a mode decomposition scheme, was implemented to obtain accurate estimates of the hydrodynamic force and displacement of a freely floating BBDB. The developed NWT was based on the potential theory and the boundary element method with constant panels on the boundaries. The mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian (MEL) approach was employed to capture the nonlinear free surfaces inside the chamber that interacted with a pneumatic pressure, induced by the time-varying airflow velocity at the air duct. A special viscous damping was applied to the chamber free surface to represent the viscous energy loss due to the BBDB's shape and motions. The viscous damping coefficient was properly selected using a comparison of the experimental data. The calculated surface elevation, inside and outside the chamber, with a tuned viscous damping correlated reasonably well with the experimental data for various incident wave conditions. The conservation of the total wave energy in the computational domain was confirmed over the entire range of wave frequencies.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.25-31
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• 2013

This paper describes an electrical linear generator (IntELG) based on permanent magnets, containing heaving buoy, and its applications for the floating wave energy converters riding in parallel waves. The permanent magnets are integrated with the heaving buoy as a component and the integrated component is configured within the cylindrical IntELG to be filled with fluid. Thus, the IntELG can effectively be applied for the power-take-off of the floating wave energy converter riding in parallel waves. Typical applications are exampled with the Pelamis and Anaconda and they are investigated for the diversely redundant power source of nuclear power plant and the cooperation with submerged tunnel(s).

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.25-35
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• 2015

The hydraulic power-take-off mechanism (HPTO) is one of the most popular methods in wave energy converters (WECs). However, the conventional HPTO with only one direction motion has a number of drawbacks that limit its power capture capability. This paper proposes an adjustable moving angle wave energy converter (AMAWEC) and investigates the effect of the moving angle on the performance of the wave energy converter to find the optimal moving angle in order to increase the power capture capability as well as energy efficiency. A mathematical model of components from a floating buoy to a hydraulic motor was modeled. A small scale WEC test rig was fabricated to verify the power capture capability and efficiency of the proposed system through experiments.