In this thesis, a device by applying the oscillating water column in a well-like resonant chamber installed in a floating structural system is studied experimentally. The device was designed to utilize the oscillation motion of the water inside the resonant chamber and then the pressure variation of the air to drive the air-turbine system. When connected to a electric power generation system this device may convert the wave power to electric power. A theory assuming independence between the motion of floating structure and the heave of waves inside the resonant chamber, derived by McCormick (1976 ) is adopted in this study. During the experimental tests four groups of test were carried out depending on the parameters that are to be evaluated for the effectiveness of the power conversion, namely, the rotation speed of the turbine with or without the power generator attached, the relative wave-height variation between the incident wave and waves in the well-like resonance chamber and the actually generated electric potential. For each group of test five sets of wave-height from 6 cm to 10 cm and four sets of period of wave, namely, 0.89, 0.92, 1.06, 1.20-second are applied.

This work focuses on developing an inversion scheme to estimate water-column sound-speed fields in three dimensions. The inversion scheme is based on a linearized perturbative technique which utilizes estimates of modal travel times. The technique is appropriate in the littoral ocean where measurements are made across range and cross-range distances greater than 10 km to ensure sufficient modal dispersion. Previous applications of then inversion technique has been limited to one or two dimensions and/or focused primarily on the seabed. Compared to past applications, the accuracy and uncertainty of the solution is improved by employing approximate equality constraints within the context of \textit{a priori} estimates of model and data covariances. The effectiveness of the constrained technique is explored through a one-dimensional example. The robustness of the technique is illustrated by introducing different types of errors into the inversion and considering the accuracy. A further examination of the technique is given by exploring a three-dimensional example. Several case studies are presented to investigate the effects of different levels of environmental variability and spatial sampling. / text

Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device is a relatively practical and convenient way that converts wave energy to a utilizable form, which is usually electricity. The OWC is kept inside a fixed truncated vertical cylinder, which is a hollow structure with one submerged open end in the water and with an air turbine at the top. The research adopts potential theory and Galerkin methods to solve the motion of the OWC. Based on the air-water interaction model, optimal OWC design for energy extraction from regular wave is explored. The hydrodynamic coefficients in scattering and radiation potential are solved using Galerkin approximation. The numerical results for the free surface elevation have been verified by a series of experiments conducted in the University of New Orleans Towing Tank. The effect of geometric parameters on the response amplitude operator (RAO) of OWC is studied and amendment of the equation for evaluating the natural frequency of the OWC is made. Using the model of air-water interaction under certain wave parameters and OWC geometric parameters, a computer program OWC Solution is developed to optimize the energy output from the system. Optimization results by the program OWC Solution lead to an effective method to design the OWC system.

No description available.

An oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter (WEC) is a device designed to extract energy from waves at sea by using the water to move trapped air and thus drive an air turbine. Because the incident waves and the force caused by the power take-off (PTO) interact, control of the power take off (PTO) system can increase the total energy converted. A numerical model was developed to study the interaction of an OWC with the water and other structures around it. ANSYS AQWA is used here to find the effects on the water surface in and around the central column of a five-column, breakwater-mounted OWC. For open OWC structures, coupled modes were seen which lead to sensitivity to incident wave period and direction. The frequency-domain displacements of the internal water surface of the central column were turned into a force-displacement, time-domain model in MATLAB Simulink using a state space approximation. The model of the hydrodynamics was then combined with the thermodynamic and turbine equations for a Wells turbine. A baseline situation was tested for fixed turbine speed operation using a wave climate for a region off the north coast of Devon. A linear feedforward controller and a controller based on maximising turbine efficiency were tested for the system. The linear controller was optimised to find the combination of turbine speed offset and proportional constant that gave maximum energy in the most energy abundant sea state. This increased the converted energy by 31% in comparison to the fixed speed case. For the turbine efficiency control method, the increase was 36%. Energy conversion increases are therefore clearly possible using simple controllers. If increased converted energy is the only criterion for controller choice, then the turbine efficiency control is the best method, however the control action involves using very slow turbine speeds which may not be physically desirable.

Maintaining optimum levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) in natural water systems has become crucial for scientists and decision makers. In general, DO concentrations less than 5 mg/L stress many types of aquatic organisms including fishes. Uncontrolled growth of aquatic autotrophs (i.e., algae and macrophytes) may alter DO concentration if the growth exceeded the capacity of the aquatic food web structure. Primary production and respiration, the two main metabolic processes associated with aquatic autotrophs, were estimated, compared, and critiqued for three streams in Northern Utah, USA. These streams have been under consideration for many years due to their impaired water quality, as they supply water to Cutler Reservoir, the sink of all the transported sediment and nutrients. This study includes estimation of the metabolic rates, examination of the driving/limiting factors, examination of the consequences of the relevant rates on water quality, and a comparison of two methods of estimation of the metabolic rates. The outcome of this research will help scientists and decision makers build knowledgeable strategies to manage DO in the streams based on the given critiques on the cause and effect of the respective metabolic rates. It will also help reduce the cost and time associated with the frequent need to use physical field measurements to estimate metabolic rates in rivers and streams.

<p>Wave power is renewable energy which is environmentally friendly. Unlike most of renewable energy resources, wave energy can produce power all the year. The wave energy is stored in the ocean worldwide and highly concentrated near the ocean surface. It can be captured by wave power devices. Wave power is considered as a competitive energy resource in future.</p><p> <strong></strong></p><p>Waves are generated by wind blows across the surface of sea. Wave energy is one kind of mechanical energy which will be used for electricity generation. Wave power can’t be used directly to generate electricity; at first the wave energy is converted into the other form of useful mechanical energy and then converted into electricity. Wave power has a high potential to be captured and used for generating electricity in future as the technology develops further.</p><p> </p><p>Wave energy has been used since 1890s. There is a lot of energy stored in waves. 94% energy of the ocean stored in the wave, and the other 6% is tidal energy.  Only small a part of the wave power is used for commercial electricity generation today.</p><p> </p><p>The China is a developing country with a very large population which annually consume about 3073TWh electricity of which 496TWh is from renewable energy.  The wave power was less than 1GWh in 2007 (reference from International Energy Agency). The World Energy Council has measured the total useful power of the ocean wave energy to be more than 2TW in the world and corresponding to 6000TWh per year. There is about 70GW useful wave power resources in China, equivalent to an annual useful wave power resource of 200TWh.</p><p> </p><p>The lowest capital cost for the wave power system is today around 0.1Euro/kWh. China will in the future focus on the development electricity generation by wave power. There will be hundreds of new wave power plant built in China during the next twenty years, and the total installed capacity will be larger than 1GW at 2030, which delivers 3TWh annually. This corresponds to less than 1 percent of the total use of electricity in China.</p><p> </p><p>This thesis focuses on the functionality, efficiency and economic pay-off of existing ocean wave power systems, as well as how easy the ocean wave power can produce electricity. Firstly it discusses the physical concepts of wave power, and then focus on the existing wave power systems around the world. It is concluded from the Chinese sea characteristics and the designed conditions of different wave power systems, that the Pelamis and Oyster wave power converters are the best suitable systems for China.</p>

Wave power is renewable energy which is environmentally friendly. Unlike most of renewable energy resources, wave energy can produce power all the year. The wave energy is stored in the ocean worldwide and highly concentrated near the ocean surface. It can be captured by wave power devices. Wave power is considered as a competitive energy resource in future.   Waves are generated by wind blows across the surface of sea. Wave energy is one kind of mechanical energy which will be used for electricity generation. Wave power can’t be used directly to generate electricity; at first the wave energy is converted into the other form of useful mechanical energy and then converted into electricity. Wave power has a high potential to be captured and used for generating electricity in future as the technology develops further.   Wave energy has been used since 1890s. There is a lot of energy stored in waves. 94% energy of the ocean stored in the wave, and the other 6% is tidal energy.  Only small a part of the wave power is used for commercial electricity generation today.   The China is a developing country with a very large population which annually consume about 3073TWh electricity of which 496TWh is from renewable energy.  The wave power was less than 1GWh in 2007 (reference from International Energy Agency). The World Energy Council has measured the total useful power of the ocean wave energy to be more than 2TW in the world and corresponding to 6000TWh per year. There is about 70GW useful wave power resources in China, equivalent to an annual useful wave power resource of 200TWh.   The lowest capital cost for the wave power system is today around 0.1Euro/kWh. China will in the future focus on the development electricity generation by wave power. There will be hundreds of new wave power plant built in China during the next twenty years, and the total installed capacity will be larger than 1GW at 2030, which delivers 3TWh annually. This corresponds to less than 1 percent of the total use of electricity in China.   This thesis focuses on the functionality, efficiency and economic pay-off of existing ocean wave power systems, as well as how easy the ocean wave power can produce electricity. Firstly it discusses the physical concepts of wave power, and then focus on the existing wave power systems around the world. It is concluded from the Chinese sea characteristics and the designed conditions of different wave power systems, that the Pelamis and Oyster wave power converters are the best suitable systems for China.

Humans have dramatically increased the amount of reactive nitrogen cycling through the biosphere. In coastal systems, excess nitrogen can lead to negative impacts. Thus, it is crucial to understand how nitrogen is cycled within, and eventually removed from, marine systems and the variables that regulate these processes. Sediment denitrification (the microbial conversion of nitrate (NO3^-) to dinitrogen (N2) gas) and water column nitrification (the two step oxidation of ammonium (NH4^+) to nitrite (NO2^-) and then nitrate (NO3^-)) rates were quantified along an in situ gradient of environmental conditions from an estuary to the continental shelf off Rhode Island, USA. Sediment net denitrification rates were directly measured over multiple seasonal cycles using the N2/Ar technique. Denitrification rates ranged from 20-75 μmol m^-2 hr^-1 (mean 44±4), indicating that this process removes ~5% of total reactive nitrogen entering the North Atlantic shelf region per year. Based on model results, these rates also represented a three-fold decrease in sediment nitrogen removal in New England continental shelf sediments over the past century. A literature review of marine water column nitrification observations were compiled to evaluate how ammonium, nitrite, and total oxidation rates vary worldwide. Rates of ammonium, nitrite, and total oxidation differed among estuary, continental shelf, and open ocean environments (p<0.05). This review highlights that as we continue to study marine "nitrification," it is necessary to consider both individual oxidation processes and environment type. Water column ammonium and nitrite oxidation rates were measured using stable isotope tracers off Rhode Island. At all study sites, nitrite oxidation rates (0-99 nM d^-1) outpaced ammonium oxidation rates (0-20 nM d^-1). These oxidation processes responded in dissimilar ways to in situ water column conditions (depth, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and pH), and these relationships varied with location. Nitrous oxide (N2O) production rates up to 10 times higher than ammonium oxidation indicated that ammonium oxidation may be underestimated if this byproduct is not measured. For the first time, the link between sediment metabolism and water column nitrification was also examined, and the results highlight the importance of benthic-pelagic coupling as controlling factor of water column ammonium and nitrite oxidation. / 2019-04-30T00:00:00Z

The collector of an oscillating water column system (OWC) for wave energy utilization requires a bidirectional turbine that copes with pneumatic power while providing specified impedance or, in terms of an OWC designer, “damping”. Damping is realized by keeping to a specific flow rate through the turbine at a given pressure head due to the individual performance characteristic of the turbine. With the number of turbine designs increasing designers of OWC systems are facing more options to select and dimension a bidirectional turbine. Energy yield, size and hence cost of the turbine and electric generator, operational behaviour, envisaged control strategy and noise emitted by the turbine are possible criteria for selection. The primary objective of this paper is to describe a simple procedure for making a first choice of a turbine for a particular OWC application. Here we confine ourselves to a family of reaction type of turbines (axial-flow Wells and mixed-flow turbines by Moisel) with their approximately linear pressure head/volume flow rate characteristics. Starting point is the set of non-dimensional steady-state characteristics of each turbine in the family. Utilizing standard scaling laws and a very simple time domain model for the cyclic turbine operation (i.e. based one single sea state and turbine operation assumed to be fixed rotational speed), first estimates of turbine size and rotor speed, number for stages or flows, and performance curves can be determined. The resulting turbine may also serve as a starting configuration for a refined analysis, e.g. the optimization of the turbine and the complete OWC system, utilizing more complex stochastic models. Three case studies illustrate the application of the method: selection and scaling of turbines, effect of collector parameters, turbines in series and parallel.