• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.38-49
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• 2018

This research describes the development model and testing of a hybrid damper which can be applicable to a vehicle suspension. The hybrid damper is devised to improve the performance of a conventional passive oil damper using a magneto-rheological (MR) accumulator which consists of a gas accumulator and a MR device. The level of damping is continuously variable by the means of control in the applied current in a MR device fitted to a floating piston which separates the gas and the oil chamber. A simple MR device is used to resist the movement of floating piston. At first a mathematical model which describes all flows within the conventional oil damper is formulated, and then a small MR device is also devised and adopted to a mathematical model to characterize the performance of the device.

• 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.