Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a Shore-line Wave Energy Converter with Mechanical Gear Motion Rectifier

Abstract

The technology of ocean Wave Energy Converters (WEC) has dramatically developed during recent years. These WECs apply various power take-off (PTO) system which are continuing to improve. Different types of PTOs such as hydroelectric, electromagnetic and air turbine systems have been introduced in different relevant studies. The most significant challenge in ocean WECs is related to different power take-off systems. This work introduces a new development of a WEC from a concept of taking energy from ocean waves to the prototype stage and testing along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The point absorber Single-body WEC, which is a popular design, was selected to model the proposed system under different conditions, including irregular and regular waves. The bi-directional motion of a wave is converted to the unidirectional motion which rotates the generator by the proposed PTO system that named “Mechanical Gear Rectifier” (MGR), in which a new pinion system is applied. A prototype of our small-scale WEC was designed, built, and then a close analysis of it is performed. Finally, the performance of proposed WEC carefully tested in different wave conditions (regular and irregular waves). The simulation results demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed MGR-WEC.