Laboratory experiment on using non-floating body to generate electrical energy from water waves

Abstract

This paper describes an innovative method of using a non-buoyant body to harness ocean waves. All the point absorbers are buoyant in nature and move up due to buoyancy and come down because of gravity. The point absorbers are designed to move along the waves to make the device efficient. These devices face excessive stress during the rough weather on account of the extreme motion of waves and cause the total device failure. The present study shows that using a non-buoyant body for conventional point absorber principle is much efficient and safer than any other device proposed till today. A small scale wave energy converter with non-buoyant body was designed, fabricated and tested in small scale wave maker. An electrical generator was coupled with the device to generate electrical energy from harnessed waves. The generator was electrically loaded and the generated power was measured. It was found from the experiments that the proposed device showed a significant improvement in electricity generation and safety during extreme conditions. In addition to the electricity generation, the characteristics of the device were also studied by using various wave and device parameters.

Keywords

ocean wave energy / point absorbers / heaving body / non-floating object / heave response ratio / electrical energy generation

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg