Developing a Formula and Maximizing the Power for an Inverted Piston-in-Cylinder Wave Engine

Abstract

Harvesting energy from the ocean waves has two significant advantages over other renewables: more attractive mean power density and integration into coastal structures. A commonly deployed device is the oscillating water column (OWC), which has so far been mounted on shore and proposed for floating plants. It consists of an air chamber in contact with the sea so that the water column in the chamber oscillates with the waves and makes the air flow in and out of the chamber which turns a turbine. In this paper, two mathematical models were developed for a floating inverted piston-in-cylinder wave engine based on the theoretical fluid dynamics and expressions were proposed for its output power and overall efficiency. The optimum values were found for both the power and efficiency. The derived formulas were compared for two models and the relationship between them were studied.

Keywords

• Wave Energy; Inverted Piston-in-Cylinder; Wave Engine

References

1. Goswami, D. Y., & Kreith, F. (Eds.). (2007). Energy conversion. CRC press.
2. Pelc, R., & Fujita, R. M. (2002). Renewable energy from the ocean. Marine Policy, 26(6), 471-479.
3. Clarke, A. W., & Trinnaman, J. A. (Eds.). (2004). Survey of Energy Resources: 2004. Elsevier Science Limited.
4. Falcão, A. F. D. O. (2010). Wave energy utilization: A review of the technologies. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 14(3), 899-918
5. Sameti, M. (2013). Study of Water power with wave and tidal energy approach: By reviewing the wave energy convertors www.academia.edu/6657010/_ (accessed 2014/13/05) (in Persian).
6. Drew, B., Plummer, A. R., & Sahinkaya, M. N. (2009). A review
7. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 223(8), 887-902. Heath, T. V. (2012). A review of oscillating water columns. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
8. A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, (1959), 235-245.

9. Josset, C., & Clément, A. H. (2007). A time-domain numerical simulator for oscillating water column wave power plants. Renewable energy, 32(8), 1379-1402.
10. Martins-Rivas, H., & Mei, C. C. (2009). Wave power extraction from an oscillating water column at the tip of a breakwater. Journal of fluid Mechanics,626, 395-414.
11. Brito-Melo, A., Gato, L. M. C., & Sarmento, A. J. N. A. (2002). Analysis of Wells turbine design parameters by numerical simulation of the OWC performance. Ocean Engineering, 29(12), 1463-1477.
12. Delauré, Y. M. C., & Lewis, A. (2003). 3D hydrodynamic modelling of fixed oscillating water column wave power plant by a boundary element methods.Ocean engineering, 30(3), 309-330.
13. Stappenbelt, B., & Cooper, P. (2010). Mechanical
14. Model of a Floating Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Conversion Device. www.renewbl.com/2010/11/29/limpet-wave-energy- plant-celebrates-ten-years-of-operation.html /04/04) (accessed
15. Garrison, T. (2009). Oceanography: an invitation to marine science. Cengage Learning.
16. Twidell, J., & Weir, T. (2012). Renewable energy resources ED2. Taylor & Francis.
17. Da Rosa, A. V. (2012). Fundamentals of Renewable
18. Energy Processes. Academic Press. Clément, A., McCullen, P., Falcão, A., Fiorentino, A., Gardner, F., Hammarlund, K., ... & Thorpe, T. (2002). Wave energy in Europe: current status and perspectives. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, (5), 405-431.
19. Holthuijsen, L. H. (2007). Waves in oceanic and coastal waters. Cambridge University Press.
20. Brito-Melo, A., Neuman, F., & Sarmento, A. J. N. A. (2008). Full-scale data assessment in OWC Pico plant.
21. International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering, (1), 27.