Design and Simulation of a Novel Mechanical Power Take-Off for a Two-Body Wave Energy Point Absorber

Conference · Sun Aug 26 04:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/detc2018-85873· OSTI ID:1659261

Li, Xiaofan ^[1]; Chen, ChienAn; Xiong, QIuchi; Parker, Robert. G.; Zuo, Lei

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1. Virginia Tech

In this paper, a two-body self-react wave energy converter with a novel mechanical Power Take-off (PTO) is introduced. The PTO rectifies the mechanical motion and regulates the flow with a mechanism called Mechanical Motion Rectifier (MMR), which converts the reciprocating motion of the ocean wave into unidirectional rotation of the generator. The overall system is analyzed in both time and frequency domain. In time domain, the piecewise non-linear dynamic model of the MMR PTO is derived, and parameters that could significantly influence the MMR property is extracted. By building the model into WEC-Sim, a time domain wave energy converter (WEC) simulation tool, to simulate and evaluate the performance of the PTO. In addition, the system is modelled as a two-body vibration system for frequency domain analysis in order to further investigate and optimize the proposed wave energy converter. The tunable parameters within the system, including the equivalent mass, the equivalent damping coefficient, and the PTO stiffness, are discussed based on the criteria of maximization of the total output power. To verify the theoretical analysis, a bench test prototype is developed and tested on a hydraulic test machine. The experimental results in line with the derived model and can be used for reasonable estimation on the output power of the proposed system in real ocean conditions.

• Research Organization: Virginia Tech
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: EE0007174
• OSTI ID: 1659261
• Report Number(s): DOE-Virginia Tech-07174
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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