Design, optimization and numerical modelling of a novel floating pendulum wave energy converter with tide adaptation

• Published in: China ocean engineering Vol. 31; no. 5; pp. 578 - 588
• Main Authors: Yang, Jing, Zhang, Da-hai, Chen, Ying, Liang, Hui, Tan, Ming, Li, Wei, Ma, Xian-dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nanjing Chinese Ocean Engineering Society 01.10.2017; Springer Nature B.V; Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316000, China%Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316000, China; The State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316000, China%The State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316000, China%Engineering Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, LA14YR
• Subjects: Adaptation; Buoys; Coastal Sciences; Design optimization; Engineering; Enumeration; Floating; Fluid- and Aerodynamics; Hydrodynamics; Marine & Freshwater Sciences; Mathematical models; Modelling; Numerical and Computational Physics; Oceanography; Offshore Engineering; Passive control; Simulation; Tidal energy; Tidal power; Tides; Water levels; Wave energy; Wave power; model analysis; tide adaptation; wave energy; simulation
• ISSN: 0890-5487; 2191-8945
• DOI: 10.1007/s13344-017-0066-6

A novel floating pendulum wave energy converter (WEC) with the ability of tide adaptation is designed and presented in this paper. Aiming to a high efficiency, the buoy’s hydrodynamic shape is optimized by enumeration and comparison. Furthermore, in order to keep the buoy’s well-designed leading edge always facing the incoming wave straightly, a novel transmission mechanism is then adopted, which is called the tidal adaptation mechanism in this paper. Time domain numerical models of a floating pendulum WEC with or without tide adaptation mechanism are built to compare their performance on various water levels. When comparing these two WECs in terms of their average output based on the linear passive control strategy, the output power of WEC with the tide adaptation mechanism is much steadier with the change of the water level and always larger than that without the tide adaptation mechanism.