• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.552-558
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• 2011

A 50 kW class rotating body type wave energy converter consisted of two floating bodies and a PTO (Power Takeoff) unit is studied. As an wave energy extractor, the body is designed to have a VLCO (Variable Liquid-Column Oscillator) having a liquid filled U-tube with air chambers. Owing to the oscillation of the liquid in the U-tube caused by the air spring effect of the air chambers, the amplitude of response of the VLCO becomes significantly amplified for a target wave period. The PTO converts the rotational moment introduced from the relative motion of the hinged bodies to an hydraulic power by means of a cylinder. A high pressure accumulator, hydraulic motor and a generator are equipped in the PTO to convert the hydraulic power to electric power. A control law for adjusting the oscillation period of the VLCO is proposed for the efficient operation of the VLCO with various wave conditions. It is found that the effect of the air spring has an important role to play in making the oscillation of the VLCO match with the ocean wave. In this way, the wave energy converter equipped with the VLCO provides the most effective mode for extracting energy from the ocean wave.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2016

In this study, a six degree-of-freedom motion analysis of a wind-wave hybrid platform equipped with numerous wave energy converters (WECs) was carried out. To examine the effect of the WECs on the platform, an analysis of one-way coupling was carried out, which only considered the power take-off (PTO) damping of the static WECs on the platform. The equation of motion of a floating platform with mooring lines in the time domain was established, and the responses of the one-way coupled platform were then compared with the case of a platform without any coupling effects from the WECs. The hydrodynamic coefficients and wave exciting forces were obtained from the 3D diffraction/radiation pre-processor code WAMIT based on the boundary element method. Then, an analysis of the dynamic responses of the floating platform with or without the WEC effect in the time domain was carried out. All of the dynamics of a floating platform with multiple wind turbines were obtained by coupling FAST and CHARM3D in the time domain, which was further extended to include additional coupled dynamics for multiple turbines. The analysis showed that the PTO damping effect on platform motions was negligible, but coupled effects between multiple WECs and the platform may differentiate the heave, roll, and pitch platform motions from the one without any effects induced by WECs.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.216-228
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• 2021

In the present study, the performance of a floating oscillating water column (OWC) device has been studied in regular waves. The OWC model has the shape of a hollow cylinder. The linear potential theory is assumed, and a matched eigenfunction expansion method(MEEM) is applied for solving the diffraction and radiation problems. The radiation problem involves the radiation of waves by the heaving motion of a floating OWC device and the oscillating pressure in the air chamber. The characteristics of the exciting forces, hydrodynamic forces, flow rate, air pressure in the chamber, and heave motion response are investigated with various system parameters, such as the inner radius, draft of an OWC, and turbine constant. The efficiency of a floating OWC device is estimated in connection with the extracted wave power and capture width. Specifically, the piston-mode resonance in an internal fluid region plays an important role in the performance of a floating OWC device, along with the heave motion resonance. The developed prediction tool will help determine the various design parameters affecting the performance of a floating OWC device in waves.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.936-942
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• 2014

As a result of the exhaustion of fossil fuel, interest about renewable energy is increasing day by day. Inter alia, study for wave power energy of which the calculability is high and the available amount is abundant is going along actively. As a float-countweight wave energy converter is equivalent improved structural strength compared with oscillating body type. we made the wave only in order to up and down motion by setting up bulkhead which is called wave camber at the outside of float. This paper mainly focuses on generation amount of plural connected float-counterweight wave energy converter and we calculate the amount. The result, we confirmed that the more a numerical value of nl/L increases, the more amount of electricity rises and also when it is over nl/L=0.40, it is possible to get continuous generation. Through this study, we can use as basic data for design of wave chamber on advantageous condition at the real seas and by way of estimation for generation amount.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.26-32
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• 2015

The authors are developing a motion of floater body type wave energy converter of the float-counterweight system. This consists of the driving pulley, wire, float and counterweight suspended from idler pulleys and rachet mechanism. Though it has succeeded in solving the major structural strength problem in which the floats would slam against adjacent structure(s) by wave load acting horizontally. In order to overcome this problem. We propose a new system in which the wire transmitting the power is wound around the pulleys and the float receiving the wave power is pulled by the wire from both its upper and lower ends to avoid the occurrence of slackening during the wave cycle. In the paper, we developed the dynamics model for the proposed system. Energy gain has been calculated for realistic wave conditions and compared with the original float-counterweight device. The important differences from the float-counterweight system are that (1) both upward and downward motions of water surface can be utilized without problem. (2) slackening of energy gain and wire tension are effectively suppressed, and (4) for the same time averaged energy gain, the maximum wire tension is fairly lowered.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.23 no.6_2
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• pp.999-1006
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• 2020

This study was conducted to develop an efficiency prediction program of a hydraulic secondary energy converter for calculating annual power generation of a Wavestar type wave power generator. Using the period and wave height obtained from the frequency domain analysis, the behavior of the floating body was obtained by assuming the sin function. The piston displacement and speed of the hydraulic cylinder were calculated considering the behavior of the floating body and the shape of the mechanism. The numerical simulation of the hydraulic system was performed by physically modeling the hydraulic cylinders, check valves, hydraulic motors, which are the main devices. In the future, this analysis program will be used to develop a program for estimating annual power generation of a moveable body type wave power generation device.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.184-191
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• 2011

Preliminary design of a mooring system for a floating wave energy converter(WEC) is performed. A mooring line is designed to consist of two parts; the one is a chain in heavy weight laid on the seabed and linked to an anchor on the seabed and the other is a light weight chain suspended at a floater. A high weight chain laid on the seabed can contribute to mitigate dynamic energy propagated from top oscillation and decrease anchor weight and volume. Through a low weight chain suspended between a floater and seabed the WEC's function to produce energy from wave can be affected in minimum by the motion of a chain. The static and dynamic analyses for the designed mooring system were carried out to evaluate WEC system's safety. The present study shows that the designed gravity anchor moves horizontally due to the tension exerted on the anchor in the severe ocean environmental condition. The present mooring system should be redesigned to satisfy the safety requirements. The present study will be useful to predict the safety of the mooring system under ocean environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.17-18
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• 2014

Wave energy generation system is sorted as oscillating water chamber type, over topping device type and wave activating body type. The wave activating body type converts from wave energy to kinetic of the machine one and the power generation amount increases while the motion of a activating body increases. In this paper the wave energy convertor consists of a main body which has a generation system and the activating body. They are connected by a bar type bridge. The twisting moment and angular velocity at a shaft of convertor are calculated when various condition of the incident wave, a diversity of connection methods between the main body and the activating body. It can be used as basic idea for determining the design of wave activating body type convertor.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.77-99
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• 2017

Offshore oscillating water columns (OWC) represent one of the most promising forms of wave energy converters. The hydrodynamic performance of such converters heavily depends on their interactions with ocean waves; therefore, understanding these interactions is essential. In this paper, a fully nonlinear 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model based on RANS equations and VOF surface capturing scheme is implemented to carry out wave energy balance analyses for an offshore OWC. The numerical model is well validated against published physical measurements including; chamber differential air pressure, chamber water level oscillation and vertical velocity, overall wave energy extraction efficiency, reflected and transmitted waves, velocity and vorticity fields (PIV measurements). Following the successful validation work, an extensive campaign of numerical tests is performed to quantify the relevance of three design parameters, namely incoming wavelength, wave height and turbine damping to the device hydrodynamic performance and wave energy conversion process. All of the three investigated parameters show important effects on the wave-pneumatic energy conversion chain. In addition, the flow field around the chamber's front wall indicates areas of energy losses by stronger vortices generation than the rear wall.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.217-224
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• 2014

We have developed the novel device that can extract energy from ocean waves utilizing the heaving motion of a floating mass. The major components of the energy converter are: a floater, a counterweight, a cable, a driving pulley, two idler pulleys, a ratchet, and a generator. The device generates power through the tension force in the cable and the weight difference between the floater and the counterweight. When the system is at static free condition, the tension in the cable is equal to the weight of the counterweight which is minimum. Therefore it is desirable to keep the counterweight lighter than the floater. However, experiments show that during the rise of the water level, the torque generated by weight of the counterweight is insufficient to rotate the driving pulley which causes the cable on the floater side to slack. The proposed application of the tension pulley rectifies these problems by preventing the cable from becoming slack when the water level rises. In this paper, the dynamics model is modified to incorporate the dynamics of the tension pulley. This has been achieved by first writing the dynamical equations for the tension pulley and the energy converter separately and combining them later. This paper investigates numerically the effect of the tension pulley on various physical quantities such as the cable tension, the floater displacement, and the floater velocity. Results obtained indicate that this application is successful in suppressing large fluctuations of the cable tension.