Abstract
Most countries in the world are trying to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the production of electricity and replace them with renewable energy technologies. In Korea, there are abundant ocean renewable energy sources that will play an important role in power generation in the future. This paper introduces a new tidal energy converter utilizing flow induced vibration (FIV), which can work efficiently, even in the currents slower than 1.0m/s. All tests were conducted at the Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory at the University of Michigan to examine the effects of the damping ratio of the electric generators on the power outputs and power efficiencies. In these tests, two identical circular cylinders were used, and passive turbulence controllers were applied to the surface of the cylinders to enhance the FIV. The experimental results showed that by using the two cylinders in the FIV, the power output and efficiency reached up to 31 W and 36%, respectively. In particular, the results showed that the power efficiency was higher at the relatively low flow speed (4＜U<SUP>*</SUP>＜U or 0.45＜U＜0.9 ㎧). This indicates that this tidal converter can work efficiently, even at low flow speeds, and will enable the use of more tidal energy.
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