Wave Energy Device Research Articles

Shape optimization of a bidirectional impulse turbine via surrogate models

ABSTRACTIn this work, a bidirectional impulse turbine used in a wave energy device is simulated using a CFD technique and a shape optimization performed with multiple surrogates-assisted multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. The surrogates have been generated using the validated CFD technique. The objectives for the optimization are to maximize the shaft power and to minimize the pressure drop across the turbine. The hub and the tip thickness of the rotor blade profiles are modified and considered as the design variables. The Latin hypercube sampling technique generated design points are evaluated in the CFD solver, the objective responses are used to construct multiple surrogates, and a Pareto optimal front is generated through a multi-objective optimization approach. The turbine efficiency, which is the function of pressure drop and shaft power, is relatively increased by 10.4%.Abbreviations: BPS: best PRESS; GV: Guide vane; KRG: kriging; LE: leading edge; MOO: multi-objective optimization; OWC: oscillating water column; PRESS: predicted error sum of squares; PS: pressure side or pressure surface; RB: rotor blade; RBNN: radial basis neural network; Ref: reference; RMS: root mean square; RSA: response surface approximation; SS: suction side or suction surface; TE: trailing edge; WAS: weighted average surrogates

Direct drive wave energy array with offshore energy storage supplying off‐grid residential load

Current developments in wave energy conversion have focused on locations where the wave energy resource is the highest; using large devices to generate hundreds of kilowatts of power. However, it is possible to generate power from low power waves using smaller wave energy devices. These lower rated wave energy converters can form arrays to supply power to remote coastal or island communities which are off-grid. This study introduces wave-to-wire modelling of wave energy arrays for off-grid systems using low power permanent-magnet linear generators (PMLGs). Offshore energy storage at the DC link is added to keep the voltage constant along with a current controller for the inverter in order to supply constant low harmonic power to the residential load connected off-grid. Simulation results produced in MATLAB/Simulink environment show that the wave energy array can generate power independently from the residential side by keeping the system stable using offshore storage. In addition, two different types of controllers for wave energy devices that use PMLGs are compared based on the power captured from the waves.

Enhancement of performance of wave turbine during stall using passive flow control: First and second law analysis

Wells turbine is the most common type of self-rectifying air turbine employed by Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy devices due to its technical simplicity, reliability, and design robustness. Because it subjected to early stall, there were many endeavors to improve the energy extraction performance of Wells turbine within the stall regime. Using the multi suction slots as a passive flow control can help obtaining a delayed stall. Two, three and four suction slots were investigated to improve the performance of Wells turbine in the stall regime. In addition the commonly used first law analysis, the present study utilized an entropy generation minimization method to examine the impact of the multi suction slots method on the entropy generation characteristics around the turbine blade. The turbine blade with optimum suction slots number and location was investigated using the oscillating water system based on the real data from the site. To achieve this purpose, two-dimension numerical models for Wells turbine airfoils under sinusoidal wave flow conditions were built and analyze using (ANSYS FLUENT) solver. It is found that the airfoil with three suction slots located at 40%, 55% and 90% from leading edge in chord percentage give the highest torque coefficient by 26.7% before the stall and 51% after the stall.

Solitary and cnoidal wave scattering by a submerged horizontal plate in shallow water

Solitary and cnoidal wave transformation over a submerged, fixed, horizontal rigid plate is studied by use of the nonlinear, shallow-water Level I Green-Naghdi (GN) equations. Reflection and transmission coefficients are defined for cnoidal and solitary waves to quantify the nonlinear wave scattering. Results of the GN equations are compared with the laboratory experiments and other theoretical solutions for linear and nonlinear waves in intermediate and deep waters. The GN equations are then used to study the nonlinear wave scattering by a plate in shallow water. It is shown that in deep and intermediate depths, the wave-scattering varies nonlinearly by both the wavelength over the plate length ratio, and the submergence depth. In shallow water, however, and for long-waves, only the submergence depth appear to play a significant role on wave scattering. It is possible to define the plate submergence depth and length such that certain wave conditions are optimized above, below, or downwave of the plate for different applications. A submerged plate in shallow water can be used as a means to attenuate energy, such as in wave breakers, or used for energy focusing, and in wave energy devices.

Characterisation of the biofouling community on a floating wave energy device

Wave energy devices are novel structures in the marine environment and, as such, provide a unique habitat for biofouling organisms. In this study, destructive scrape samples and photoquadrats were used to characterise the temperate epibenthic community present on prototypes of the Pelamis wave energy converter. The biofouling observed was extensive and diverse with 115 taxa recorded including four non-native species. Vertical zonation was identified on the sides of the device, with an algae-dominated shallow subtidal area and a deeper area characterised by a high proportion of suspension-feeding invertebrates. Differences in species composition and biomass were also observed between devices, along the length of the device and between sampling dates. This research provides an insight into the variation of biofouling assemblages on a wave energy device as well as the potential technical and ecological implications associated with biofouling on marine renewable energy structures.

Mixed mode fracture properties of GFRP-adhesive interfaces based on video gauge and acoustic emission measurements from specimens with adherend fibres normal to the interfaces

Mixed-mode bending tests were performed on fifty-three GFRP-adhesive-GFRP specimens. In each specimen the pre-crack was located near the GFRP adherend with fibres normal to the GFRP-adhesive interface, so as to encourage crack propagation along this interface rather than through the GFRP. The other GFRP adherend contained fibres parallel to the interface, leading to asymmetry of GFRP material (but not of specimen geometry) with respect to the adhesive layer in each specimen. This switching, across the adhesive layer, between normal and parallel fibres in the adherends, reflects a T-joint detail considered for a wave energy device. All tests used a video gauge system to measure crack propagation. Some tests also employed an acoustic emission (AE) system. Comparisons between the AE results and the video gauge-based crack propagation data strongly suggest that the AE energy vs time curve is a much clearer indication of crack initiation than is the widely used AE hit count vs time curve. Increase in Mode II ratio during the tests led to fewer but larger post-peak load drops. Williams's approach, based on beam theory for asymmetric sections with correction factors for large displacements and shear deformation included, led to fracture toughness (G(c)) values in the range 0.3-2.8 kJ/m(2), with a trend of increasing Gc values as pure Mode II is approached. The ASTM approach, developed only for symmetric specimens, gave much lower Gc values. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Distribution of the invasive bryozoan Schizoporella japonica in Great Britain and Ireland and a review of its European distribution

The bryozoan Schizoporella japonica Ortmann (1890) was first recorded in European waters in 2010 and has since been reported from further locations in Great Britain (GB) and Norway. This paper provides a new earliest European record for the species from 2009, a first record from Ireland and presence and absence records from a total of 231 marinas and harbours across GB, Ireland, the Isle of Man, France and Portugal. This species is typically associated with human activity, including commercial and recreational vessels, aquaculture equipment, and both wave and tidal energy devices. It has also been observed in the natural environment, fouling rocks and boulders. The species has an extensive but widely discontinuous distribution in GB and Ireland. Although found frequently in marinas and harbours in Scotland, it inhabits only a few sites in England, Wales and Ireland, interspersed with wide gaps that are well documented as genuine absences. This appears to be a rare example of a southward-spreading invasion in GB and Ireland. The species has been reported from the Isle of Man and Norway but has not been found in France or Portugal. In the future we expect S. japonica to spread into suitable sections of the English, Welsh and Irish coasts, and further within Europe. The species’ capability for long-distance saltatory spread and potential for negative impact on native ecosystems and economic activity suggests that S. japonica should now be considered invasive in GB and Ireland. As such, it is recommended that biosecurity procedures alongside effective surveillance and monitoring should be prioritised for regions outside the species’ current distribution.

Wave energy absorption by a submerged air bag connected to a rigid float.

A new wave energy device features a submerged ballasted air bag connected at the top to a rigid float. Under wave action, the bag expands and contracts, creating a reciprocating air flow through a turbine between the bag and another volume housed within the float. Laboratory measurements are generally in good agreement with numerical predictions. Both show that the trajectory of possible combinations of pressure and elevation at which the device is in static equilibrium takes the shape of an S. This means that statically the device can have three different draughts, and correspondingly three different bag shapes, for the same pressure. The behaviour in waves depends on where the mean pressure-elevation condition is on the static trajectory. The captured power is highest for a mean condition on the middle section.

Receding Horizon Pseudospectral Control for Energy Maximization With Application to Wave Energy Devices

This paper addresses the issue of real-time control for applications, subject to physical constraints, involving an energy maximization objective. Typical application areas include renewable energy systems where, in spite of the fact that the raw energy resource is free, the capital and operational costs associated with the energy conversion process are not. In addition, economic energy delivery can only be achieved if the conversion device is operated efficiently. Previous approaches to this problem include model predictive control (MPC), but the computational cost associated with MPC can be high. Pseudospectral solutions show considerable promise in achieving a good balance between performance and computation, but currently available solutions deal with fixed-period optimization. In this paper, a receding horizon real-time pseudospectral control is developed, based on half-range Chebyshev Fourier basis functions, which can accurately represent harmonic signals in the application domain, while also efficiently dealing with the signal truncation effects associated with a receding horizon formulation. An application example, based on a wave energy converter, is used to illustrate the new control algorithm.

Study on numerical calculation method for hydrodynamic parameters of WEC

For the effect of hydrodynamic parameters on the dynamic performance of wave energy devices is very significant, these parameters must be considered carefully when adjusting dynamic characteristics of devices. On the other hand calculating hydrodynamic parameter of devices accurately can guarantee rational dynamic property parameter adjustment. By using CFD technique and considering the definition of hydrodynamic parameters, the phase relationship between added mass and damp as well as the equation of forces, one new calculation method of hydrodynamic parameter was presented. Finally one example demonstrated the effectiveness of the new analysis method presented in this paper.

ISWEC linear quadratic regulator oscillating control

Wave energy is one of the most promising technologies for the future of renewable energy. Its steady, even if not dashing, development, both in theoretical and applied solutions, will bring the field, in the mid-term, to the point of being a viable, economical and sustainable technology, competitive when compared to more mature ones. This paper deals with the ISWEC (Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter) power take off (PTO) technology and control strategies. In particular it focuses on the control strategy used for harnessing energy during its first deployment, and presents the development of a new controller designed using optimal control theory. The approach to the problem of this work is not to seek for the theoretical optimal control strategy. In fact, during the test period of the ISWEC into the sea, limitations of a model-optimized control strategy came out, due to well known shortcomings of hydrodynamics modeling theory for wave energy devices, and the idea of an easy-to-tune in the field controller arose. This work points out in the direction of developing a practical and effective strategy for industrial application, with the main objective of increasing the power production while simplifying the control law by which the device harnesses energy.

Fluid-structure interaction simulation of a floating wave energy convertor with water-turbine driven power generation

The Floating Wave Energy Convertor (FWEC) mooring design has an important requirement associated with the fact that, for a wave energy converter, the mooring connections may interact with their oscillations, possibly modifying its energy absorption significantly. It is therefore important to investigate what might be the most suitable mooring design according to the converter specifications and take into account the demands placed on the moorings in order to assure their survivability. The objective of this study is to identify a computational fluid dynamics method for investigating the effects of coupling a wave energy device with a mooring system. Using the commercial software ANSYS AQWA and ANSYS FLUENT, a configuration was studied for different displacements from the equilibrium position, load demands on the moorings, and internal fluid motion. These results and findings form a basis for future efforts in computational model development, design refinement, and investigation of station keeping for FWEC units.

Optimal Configurations of Wave Energy Converter Arrays with a Floating Body

Abstract An array of floating point-absorbing wave energy converters (WECs) is usually employed for extracting efficiently ocean wave energy. For deep water environment, it is more feasible and convenient to connect the absorbers array with a floating body, such as a semi-submersible bottom-moored disk, whose function is to act as the virtual seabed. In the present work, an array of identical floating symmetrically distributed cylinders in a coaxial moored disk as a wave energy device is proposed The power take-off (PTO) system in the wave energy device is assumed to be composed of a linear/nonlinear damper activated by the buoys heaving motion. Hydrodynamic analysis of the examined floating system is implemented in frequency domain. Hydrodynamic interferences between the oscillating bodies are accounted for in the corresponding coupled equations. The array layouts under the constraint of the disk, incidence wave directions, separating distance between the absorbers and the PTO damping are considered to optimize this kind of WECs. Numerical results with regular waves are presented and discussed for the axisymmetric system utilizing heave mode with these interaction factors, in terms of a specific numbers of cylinders and expected power production.

Simulation and Experimental Study in the Process of Wave Energy Conversion

Abstract This article introduces the operating principle of the wave energy device and makes AMEsim simulated analysis in the influence of the amplitude and period of the wave on the output efficient. By using the result of the simulation to optimize design, the article puts forwards a kind of suitable control technology which based on the disclosed amplitude and period of the wave to control the check valve, invoking the motor in different levels of efficiency. This kind of technology aims to solve the problem which includes low efficiency and high start wave of the wave energy device. The result is verified by the physical experiment, which lays the foundation for the implementation of marine engineering. The established methods of simulation model and analysis results are expected to be useful to designing and manufacturing of wave energy converter.

Analysis of the SEA-OWC-Clam wave energy device part B: Structural integrity analysis

In this paper the dynamic loads determined for the SEA-OWC-Clam wave energy device, treated as a floating offshore structure with six degrees-of-freedom with partial internal sealed-off channels, are applied to assess its structural integrity. This task necessitates the matching of the boundary element determined dynamic pressures to the corresponding Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to determine the effective von Mises stress levels. A decomposition of the total load to permit attribution to different aspects of radiation and diffraction loading is presented. Possible modification of structural details is identified by undertaking a more local stiffened plate analysis to improve structural details.

Quasi-static mooring solver implemented in SPH

The correct simulation of moored floating objects is key to save time and money in the design stage of new off-shore devices. DualSPHysics is a graphics processing unit implementation of the weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method successfully validated with different free-surface problems and already applied to real engineering problems with accuracy, reliability and high performance. A new implementation to simulate the behaviour of moored lines is presented for SPH models. This new approach allows reproducing the forces on floating bodies, such as vessels, boats, wave energy devices and other off-shore structures moored to the seabed. More precisely, the implementation is focused on continuous ropes and wires that can be described by the catenary function. Some validations are provided for floating bodies and moored lines showing good agreement with experiments and other numerical solutions. Finally, a working case of a wind turbine base moored by three lines is simulated to show the capabilities of the code.

Identification of Wave Energy Device Models From Numerical Wave Tank Data—Part 2: Data-Based Model Determination

In this paper and its companion, the identification of mathematical models describing the behaviour of wave energy devices (WECs) in the ocean is investigated through the use of numerical wave tank experiments. When the wave amplitude and the WEC displacement are not negligible with respect to the WEC dimensions, nonlinear hydrodynamic effects may appear, and the accuracy of linear hydrodynamic models is reduced, leading to the necessity of introducing some nonlinearities in the model structure. This paper proposes, for WEC modelling, the use of discrete-time nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) models, as an alternative to continuous-time models. Techniques of model identification are also explained and applied to a case study.

Identification of Wave Energy Device Models From Numerical Wave Tank Data—Part 1: Numerical Wave Tank Identification Tests

In this paper and its companion, the identification of mathematical models describing the behaviour of wave energy devices (WECs) in the ocean is investigated through the use of numerical wave tank (NWT) experiments. This paper deals with the identification tests used to produce the data for the model identification. NWTs, implemented using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), are shown as an effective platform to perform the identification tests. The design of the NWT experiments, to ensure the production of information-rich data for the model identification, is discussed. A case study is presented to illustrate the design and implementation of NWT experiments for the identification of WEC models.

Linear diffraction analysis for optimisation of the three-float multi-mode wave energy converter M4 in regular waves including small arrays

A general frequency domain dynamic model based on the DIFFRACT code has been developed to predict the motion and power generation of the three-float multi-mode wave energy converter M4, modelled as a two-body problem. The machine has previously been shown experimentally and numerically to have broad-band high capture widths for the range of wave periods typical of offshore sites. The float sizes increase from bow to stern; the bow and mid float are rigidly connected by a beam and the stern float is connected by a beam to a hinge above the mid float where the rotational relative motion is damped to absorb power. The floats are approximately half a wavelength apart so the float forces and motion in antiphase generate relative rotation. Here regular waves representative of swell are investigated and the model is shown to give accurate predictions of experimental results for motion and power for small wave heights and motion which are representative of operational conditions. A linear damper is used to model the power take-off. Without changing the float geometry or the hinge position, adjusting the linear damping factor for each frequency is shown to increase the power by up to three times the experimental value, with a maximum close to the theoretical value for a single float. Increasing the height of the hinge point above the mid float increases the power for the higher periods but can reduce power at lower periods. Since float motion can be quite large, this result can only be indicative of qualitative trends. The effect of small rows has been investigated, up to five machines, and it is shown in particular how the performance of wave energy devices in a row was affected by the multi-body interactions and wave directions. These results are important since the optimum damping factor is shown to be frequency dependent, and increase power generation by up to three times. Furthermore, hydrodynamic interference between M4 machines in a row may significantly increase the power generation when appropriate spacings are chosen.

A critical comparison of model-predictive and pseudospectral control for wave energy devices

Model predictive control (MPC) and pseudospectral optimal control (PSC) have been proposed over the past decade to maximise energy capture for wave energy devices. Both philosophies share a similar cost function and both can deal with constraints on system (displacement, velocity) and control (force) variables. Recently, a receding horizon version of the PSC method (RHPSC) has been developed, permitting a direct comparison between MPC and RHPSC formulations. This paper demonstrates that while the control objectives are very similar, the numerical properties of both algorithms are quite different, having implications for practical use, both in terms of performance and implementation issues.