As the sources of our electricity shift from centralized and carbon emitting, to a portfolio of distributed, clean-energy sources, the wave energy converter (WEC) has become a topic of exploration and development for providing coastal communities electric power. Part of this trend has included an effort to create open source...
Wave energy converters (WECs) show promising potential to significantly contribute to global renewable energy goals. Numerous WEC designs have been proposed and investigated, but wave energy conversion technology has yet to reach convergence in the same way wind or solar has. Of the designs currently in existence, surface-piercing WECs are...
A wide variety of hydrodynamic theories are utilized to approximate a Wave Energy Converter’s (WEC) equation of motion. Numerous theories have been refined in order to improve numerical approximations of WEC dynamics. When incorporating refined hydrodynamic theories into numerical models, there are distinct impacts on WEC rigid body motions, cable...
Wave energy conversion is still in its infancy, and in order for it to become a commercially viable technology, developers, investors and utilities need to estimate a Wave Energy Converter's (WEC's) performance for the wave climate of a potential installation site. With the goal of estimating a design's power output...
Ocean waves provide a promising source of renewable energy for the North American electric grid. However, ideal control of wave energy converters (WECs) requires perfect forecasting of future wave conditions, and waves can be unpredictable. This paper presents a comparison of three different prediction methods and analyzes their performance in...
The performance of the power take-off (PTO) system for a wave energy converter (WEC) depends largely on its control algorithm. This paper presents an adaptive damping control algorithm that improves power capture across a range of sea states. Validation for the numerical model was performed using data from two sources;...
Continual growth of the world's energy consumption and the demand for long-term clean renewable energy resources has led to the development of ocean-based wave energy technologies. Emerging technologies are advancing potential solutions to the complex problem of energy generation in the harsh and corrosive ocean environment. To develop these technologies,...
The Large Wave Flume at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory houses a piston wavemaker with a built-in active absorption system designed by MTS Systems Corporation. The performance of the active absorption system has not been properly assessed yet. This thesis evaluates the performance of the MTS active absorption system...
In coastal and ocean engineering, understanding the ocean environment and the forces from waves, tsunamis and waterborne debris on structures and floating bodies is an important aspect of designing safe and effective infrastructure. Understanding the impact of these forces on structures becomes an important question in the design process. Answering...
Wave energy converter (WEC) devices are complicated systems containing hydrodynamic, mechanical, and electrical elements. WEC design efforts are primarily focused in the time-domain, using frequency-based energy analyses and numerical problem solving approaches that are staples in hydrodynamic design efforts to form the basic information set used in these time-domain development...