The development of new wave energy converters has shed light on a number of unanswered questions in fluid mechanics, but has also identified a number of new issues of importance for their future deployment. The main c...The development of new wave energy converters has shed light on a number of unanswered questions in fluid mechanics, but has also identified a number of new issues of importance for their future deployment. The main concerns relevant to the practical use of wave energy converters are sustainability, survivability, and maintainability. Of course,it is also necessary to maximize the capture per unit area of the structure as well as to minimize the cost. In this review, we consider some of the questions related to the topics of sustainability, survivability, and maintenance access, with respect to sea conditions, for generic wave energy converters with an emphasis on the oscillating wave surge converter. New analytical models that have been developed are a topic of particular discussion. It is also shown how existing numerical models have been pushed to their limits to provide answers to open questions relating to the operation and characteristics of wave energy converters.展开更多
Wave energy has gained its popularity in recent decades due to the vast amount of untapped wave energy resources.There are numerous types of wave energy convertor(WEC)being proposed and to be economically viable,vario...Wave energy has gained its popularity in recent decades due to the vast amount of untapped wave energy resources.There are numerous types of wave energy convertor(WEC)being proposed and to be economically viable,various means to enhance the power generation from WECs have been studied and investigated.In this paper,a novel pontoon-type WEC,which is formed by multiple plate-like modules connected by hinges,are considered.The power enhancement of this pontoon-type WEC is achieved by allowing certain level of structural deformation and by utilizing a series of optimal variable power take-off(PTO)system.The wave energy is converted into useful electricity by attaching the PTO systems on the hinge connectors such that the mechanical movements of the hinges could produce electricity.In this paper,various structural rigidity of the interconnected modules are considered by changing the material Young’s modulus in order to investigate its impact on the power enhancement.In addition,the genetic algorithm optimization scheme is utilized to seek for the optimal PTO damping in the variable PTO system.It is observed that under certain condition,the flexible pontoon-type WEC with lesser connection joints is more effective in generating energy as compared to its rigid counterpart with higher connection joints.It is also found that the variable PTO system is able to generate greater energy as compared to the PTO system with constant/uniform PTO damping.展开更多
基金funded by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the research project “High-end Computational Modelling for Wave Energy Systems” (Grant SFI/10/IN.1/12996) in collaboration with Marine Renewable Energy Ireland (Ma REI)the SFI Centre for Marine Renewable Energy Research (SFI/12/RC/2302)+4 种基金support from EPSRC through Project Grant EP/M021394/1the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) through the Renewable Energy Research Development & Demonstration Programme (Grant RE/OE/13/20132074)the European Space Agency (ESA)the numerical simulations were performed on the Stokes and Fionn clusters at the Irish Centre for High-end Computing (ICHEC)the Swiss National Computing Centre under the PRACE-2IP project (Grant FP7 RI-283493)
文摘The development of new wave energy converters has shed light on a number of unanswered questions in fluid mechanics, but has also identified a number of new issues of importance for their future deployment. The main concerns relevant to the practical use of wave energy converters are sustainability, survivability, and maintainability. Of course,it is also necessary to maximize the capture per unit area of the structure as well as to minimize the cost. In this review, we consider some of the questions related to the topics of sustainability, survivability, and maintenance access, with respect to sea conditions, for generic wave energy converters with an emphasis on the oscillating wave surge converter. New analytical models that have been developed are a topic of particular discussion. It is also shown how existing numerical models have been pushed to their limits to provide answers to open questions relating to the operation and characteristics of wave energy converters.
文摘Wave energy has gained its popularity in recent decades due to the vast amount of untapped wave energy resources.There are numerous types of wave energy convertor(WEC)being proposed and to be economically viable,various means to enhance the power generation from WECs have been studied and investigated.In this paper,a novel pontoon-type WEC,which is formed by multiple plate-like modules connected by hinges,are considered.The power enhancement of this pontoon-type WEC is achieved by allowing certain level of structural deformation and by utilizing a series of optimal variable power take-off(PTO)system.The wave energy is converted into useful electricity by attaching the PTO systems on the hinge connectors such that the mechanical movements of the hinges could produce electricity.In this paper,various structural rigidity of the interconnected modules are considered by changing the material Young’s modulus in order to investigate its impact on the power enhancement.In addition,the genetic algorithm optimization scheme is utilized to seek for the optimal PTO damping in the variable PTO system.It is observed that under certain condition,the flexible pontoon-type WEC with lesser connection joints is more effective in generating energy as compared to its rigid counterpart with higher connection joints.It is also found that the variable PTO system is able to generate greater energy as compared to the PTO system with constant/uniform PTO damping.
