Design Synthesis of a Wave Energy Converter

Abstract

A demonstration ocean wave energy project is planned for Hesquiaht Sound, British Columbia, Canada in 2010. This project is led by SyncWave Systems and involves the University of Victoria, Dynamic Systems Analysis Ltd. and Marinus Power. The design process for this demonstration wave energy converter (WEC) including site selection, linear dynamics, control system scheduling and non-linear dynamics modelling is presented. The WEC is a heaving point absorber that extracts energy through the relative motion between two axisymmetric bodies and utilizes an internally housed mechanical system with adjustable inertia characteristics for frequency response tuning. Site selection for the device was completed by using an established wave propagation model to translate off-shore sea conditions calculated from WAVEWATCHIII (WW3) into near-shore conditions. By analysis of the predicted near-shore conditions a suitable location with a frequently energetic sea state was chosen. The design process of the WEC consists of a linearized dynamics model to optimize the controller and a nonlinear dynamics model to analyze the mooring and hull components. The resulting unit effectively captures energy from the prevailing sea-states while ensuring adequate survival capability.