• Title/Summary/Keyword: Ocean energy

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Experimental Study on Wave Overtopping Rate of Wave Overtopping Control Structure for Wave Energy Conversion (파랑 에너지 변환을 위한 월파제어구조물의 월파량 산정 실험)

  • Shin, Seung-Ho;Hong, Key-Yong
    • Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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    • v.19 no.6 s.67
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    • pp.8-15
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    • 2005
  • Wave energy has been considered to be one of the most promising energy resources for the future, as it is pollution-free and an abundant natural resource. However, since it has drawbacks of non-stationary energy density, it is necessary to change the wave energy into a simple concentrated energy. Progressive waves in a coastal area can be amplified, swashed, and overtopped by a wave overtopping control structure. By conserving the quantity of overflow in a reservoir, the kinetic energy of the waves can be converted to the potential energy with a hydraulic head above the mean sea level. The potential energy in the form of a hydraulic head can be utilized to produce electric power, similar to hydro-electric power generation. This study aims to find the most optimal shape of wave overtopping structure for maximum overtopping volume of sea water; for this purpose, we carried out the wave overtopping experiment in a wave tank, under both regular and irregular wave conditions.

Assessment of the potential for the design of marine renewable energy systems

  • Duthoit, Maxime;Falzarano, Jeffrey
    • Ocean Systems Engineering
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    • v.8 no.2
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    • pp.119-166
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    • 2018
  • The assessment of the potential for the design of marine renewable energy systems is reviewed and the current situation for marine renewable energy is promising. The most studied forms of marine renewable energy are ocean wind energy, ocean wave energy and tidal energy. Wind turbine generators include mostly horizontal axis type and vertical axis type. But also more exotic ideas such as a kite design. Wave energy devices consist of designs converting wave oscillations in electric power via a power take off equipment. Such equipment can take multiple forms to be more efficient. Nevertheless, the technology alone cannot be the only step towards marine renewable energy. Many other steps must be overcome: policy, environment, manpower as well as consumption habits. After reviewing the current conditions of marine renewable energy development, the authors analyzed the key factors for developing a strong marine renewable energy industry and pointed out the huge potential of marine renewable energy.

Investigation on Performance Characteristics of Dual Vertical Axis Turbine of 100 kW Class Tidal Energy Convertor (100 kW급 조류발전용 듀얼 수직축 터빈의 성능특성 연구)

  • HEO, MAN-WOONG;KIM, DONG-HWAN;PARK, JIN-SOON
    • Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.151-159
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    • 2020
  • This study aimed to investigate the performance characteristics of vertical axis turbine of tidal energy convertor. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation with shear stress transport turbulence model has been solved to analyze the fluid flow of the vertical axis turbine. The hexahedral grids have been used to construct the computational domain and the grid dependency test has been performed to find the optimum grid system. Four steps have been carried out to design the vertical axis turbine of the 100 kW class tidal energy convertor.

2D Computational Analysis of Overtopping Wave Energy Convertor

  • Liu, Zhen;Hyun, Beom-Soo;Jin, Ji-Yuan
    • Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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    • v.23 no.6
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    • pp.1-6
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    • 2009
  • An Overtopping Wave Energy Convertor (OWEC) is an offshore wave energy convertor used for collecting overtopping waves and converting the water pressure head into electric power through hydro turbines installed in a vertical duct affixed to the sea bed. A numerical wave tank based on the commercial computational fluid dynamics code Fluent is established for the corresponding analysis. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equation and two-phase VOF model are utilized to generate the 2D numerical linear propagating waves, which are validated by the overtopping experiment results. Calculations are made for several incident wave conditions and shape parameters for the overtopping device. Both the incident wave periods and heights have evident effects on the overtopping performance of the OWEC device. The computational analysis demonstrates that the present overtopping device is more compatible with longer incident wave periods.

Performance Analysis of Multiple Wave Energy Converters due to Rotor Spacing

  • Poguluri, Sunny Kumar;Kim, Dongeun;Ko, Haeng Sik;Bae, Yoon Hyeok
    • Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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    • v.35 no.3
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    • pp.229-237
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    • 2021
  • A numerical hydrodynamic performance analysis of the pitch-type multibody wave energy converter (WEC) is carried out based on both linear potential flow theory and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the unidirectional wave condition. In the present study, Salter's duck (rotor) is chosen for the analysis. The basic concept of the WEC rotor, which nods when the pressure-induced motions are in phase, is that it converts the kinetic and potential energies of the wave into rotational mechanical energy with the proper power-take-off system. This energy is converted to useful electric energy. The analysis is carried out using three WEC rotors. A multibody analysis using linear potential flow theory is performed using WAMIT (three-dimensional diffraction/radiation potential analysis program), and a CFD analysis is performed by placing three WEC rotors in a numerical wave tank. In particular, the spacing between the three rotors is set to 0.8, 1, and 1.2 times the rotor width, and the hydrodynamic interaction between adjacent rotors is checked. Finally, it is confirmed that the dynamic performance of the rotors slightly changes, but the difference due to the spacing is not noticeable. In addition, the CFD analysis shows a lateral flow phenomenon that cannot be confirmed by linear potential theory, and it is confirmed that the CFD analysis is necessary for the motion analysis of the rotor.

Motion characteristics of a floating wave energy converter with wave activating body type

  • Kim, Sung-soo;Lee, Jae-chul;Kang, Donghoon;Lee, Soon-sup
    • 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.

Performance of a Horizontal-axis Turbine Based on the Direction of Current Flow (수평축 조류발전 로터의 유향변화에 따른 효율 고찰)

  • Jo, Chul-Hee;Park, Ro-Sik;Yim, Jin-Young;Lee, Kang-Hee
    • Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.8-12
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    • 2010
  • The use of a tidal-current power system is one source of renewable energy that can minimize the environmental impact of power production and offer many other advantages compared to conventional energy sources. Unlike other energy production approaches, rate of energy production can be precisely predicted and the operational rate is very high. The performance of the rotor, which has a vital role in energy production using tidal currents, is determined by various design factors, and it should be optimized for the specific ocean environment in the field. The horizontal-axis turbine is very sensitive to the direction of flow, and flow direction changes due to rise and fall of the tides. To investigate the performance of the rotor considering the interaction problems with incidence angle of flow, a series of experiments were conducted, and a 3D CFD model was designed and analyzed by ANSYS CFX. The results and findings are summarized in the paper.

Preliminary Design and Performance Analysis of Ducted Tidal Turbine

  • Jo, Chul-Hee;Lee, Kang-Hee;Kim, Do-Youb;Goo, Chan-Hoe
    • Journal of Advanced Research in Ocean Engineering
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    • v.1 no.3
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    • pp.176-185
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    • 2015
  • Recently, focus has been placed on ocean energy resources because environmental concerns regarding the exploitation of hydrocarbons are increasing. Tidal current power, one of the ocean energy resources, has great potential worldwide due to its high energy density. The flow velocity is the most crucial factor for the power estimation of TCP(Tidal Current Power) system since the kinetic energy of the flow is proportional to the cube of the flow speed. So sufficient inflow speed to generate electricity from the tidal current power is necessary. A duct system can accelerate the flow velocity, which could expand the applicable area of TCP systems to relatively lower velocity sites. The shapes of the inlet and outlet could affect the flow rate inside the duct. To investigate the performance of the duct, various ducts were preliminary designed considering the entire system that is single-point moored TCP system and a series of simulations were carried out using ANSYS-CFX v13.0 CFD software. This study introduces a ducted turbine system that can be moored to a seabed. A performance estimation and comparison of results with conventional tidal converters were summarized in this paper.

Structural damage identification using an iterative two-stage method combining a modal energy based index with the BAS algorithm

  • Wang, Shuqing;Jiang, Yufeng;Xu, Mingqiang;Li, Yingchao;Li, Zhixiong
    • Steel and Composite Structures
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.31-45
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    • 2020
  • The purpose of this study is to develop an effective iterative two-stage method (ITSM) for structural damage identification of offshore platform structures. In each iteration, a new damage index, Modal Energy-Based Damage Index (MEBI), is proposed to help effectively locate the potential damage elements in the first stage. Then, in the second stage, the beetle antenna search (BAS) algorithm is used to estimate the damage severity of these elements. Compared with the well-known particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and genetic algorithm (GA), this algorithm has lower computational cost. A modal energy based objective function for the optimization process is proposed. Using numerical and experimental data, the efficiency and accuracy of the ITSM are studied. The effects of measurement noise and spatial incompleteness of mode shape are both considered. All the obtained results show that under these influences, the ITSM can accurately identify the true location and severity of damage. The results also show that the objective function based on modal energy is most suitable for the ITSM compared with that based on flexibility and weighted natural frequency-mode shape.