Numerical study of energy capture equipment using tanker rolling motion for different wave heights and encounter angles

Abstract

ABSTRACT An energy capture equipment is proposed, which can harvest the mechanical energy generated by the rolling motion of a tanker, and the structure of the equipment is designed. The mass-spring-damping mathematical model of the slider is established. Then, a numerical wave tank is created by Fluent to simulate the rolling motion of a typical ship equipped with equipment. According to the data of ship rolling motion and the mathematical model solved by the Newmark-β method in MATLAB, the equipment's power is obtained. Specifically, when the encounter angle is beam wave condition (90 degree), the rolling motion is violent and the equipment power reached the maximum value (187.16 W). Besides, the power generation with the quartering wave is better by comparing the equipment's power under the conditions of the bow and quartering wave. Finally, the wave height becomes bigger, the ship's rolling angular displacement and the equipment's power become larger.