Conceptual Design and Simulation of a Self-Adjustable Heaving Point Absorber Based Wave Energy Converter

Different concepts and methods have been proposed and developed by many researchers to harvest ocean wave energy. In this paper, a new self-adjustable wave energy converter concept is presented, which changes its inertia through ballasting and de-ballasting using sea water. The trigger of ballasting and de-ballasting is controlled by the critical wave period. Therefore, the self-adjustable wave energy converter is able to interact at resonance with the ocean waves at two different resonant bandwidths. Ten years real wave data with hourly resolution from a selected location in Gulf of Mexico was used in this paper to decide the critical wave period and other parameters of the wave energy converter. The annual energy performance of the self-adjustable wave energy converter was also estimated and compared with non-adjustable wave energy converter with similar dimensions. Structural analysis including both static and fatigue analysis was performed on the self-adjustable wave energy converter to determine its survivability with the real ocean wave data. The results show that the self-adjustable wave energy converter is able to capture more energy than non-adjustable wave energy converter, and is able to survive during the hash ocean wave conditions.

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