A Modular Wave Energy Converter for Observational and Navigational Buoys

Alexander Sandoval,Masoud Masoumi,Jamie Foley,Leonardo D’Attile,Nicholas Vella,James Sloat

doi:10.3390/fluids7020088

Abstract

More than 80% of the ocean is not fully mapped or even observed, even though it covers over 70% of our planet’s surface. One of the primary challenges for ocean observation and monitoring is the required power for exploration and monitoring systems, which often operate in remote areas of the ocean. This work addresses the design and development of an ocean wave energy converter that can be installed on observational buoys to provide enough power for sensors, cameras, data acquisition and recording, as well as data transfer units. The initial simulations of the prototype indicate that this system can produce up to 3.7–3.85 watts of power on average, with greater than 12 watts of maximum power in two selected sites in California and Hawaii. The proposed system is simple and low-cost. Further, multiple energy converters can be installed on one buoy to address higher power needs.

Highlights

Ocean observation and continuous coastal monitoring have various important applications, from marine navigation and operation, monitoring coastal hazards, military operations to coast guard’s search, and rescue missions and scientific research
The boundary around the structure was created in Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) such that it emulates the impedance of an unbounded domain
The numerical analysis performed in this work considered a 2.1 m Self-Contained Ocean Observing Payload (SCOOP) [37] as the hub for the energy harvester

Summary

Introduction

Ocean observation and continuous coastal monitoring have various important applications, from marine navigation and operation, monitoring coastal hazards, military operations to coast guard’s search, and rescue missions and scientific research. It is essential to continuously observe ocean characteristics, properties, and its ecosystem [1,2,3]. The advancement of measurement technologies, sensors, and recording devices have had a great impact on ocean observation and monitoring. New sensors are more compact, sensitive, reliable, compact, and lightweight, and they consume less energy to record and transfer the data. These changes, along with the rapidly increasing need for sustainable development, accelerated the effort to develop more efficient measurement systems for mapping the ocean, and real-time and long-term monitoring of coastal regions. Among the various challenges involved in in situ measurements is the energy needed to power sensors and data acquisition systems. The power requirement is one of the primary limiting factors in developing systems that can provide measurements over large areas with small spatial resolution

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Conclusion