As machine topologies and technologies mature, the fundamental function of the device is honed. Direct drive machines have the potential to launch the renewable energy sector into a new era of large scale, reliable, offshore power generation. With advancements in new technologies, such as superconductivity, the reduction of generator mass due to incorporation of machine and device structures, the continued advancements in component and system reliability; direct drive generators have the ability to outsize geared wind systems and simplify submerged linear and rotary power generation. The research held within this thesis will focus on improving direct drive power take off systems for offshore renewable energy power generation by splitting the area into four parts. The first part will discuss the various methods of energy extraction within the offshore and marine environment. The future of the sector will be discussed, and a forecast of technological advancement and existing reliability issues will be provided based on current data. The second part will focus on drive trains and direct drive generators, assessing the current topologies and suggesting alternatives that may thrive in a variety of large and small offshore renewable machines. The third part investigates the application of novel linear bearings in direct drive systems for offshore and submerged operation. A brief study of the loads found in wave applications will be presented and the testing of several polymer bearing materials will be outlined. The final part will discuss the potential benefits of flooding the airgap of a direct drive generator with sea water for marine applications. Results will be presented from two linear test rigs and the marinisation of devices will conclude the report.

Under det senaste decenniet har miljöfrågan blivit ett ständigt växande problem. Fristående organisationer som IPCC, som är FN:s friståendeorgan för att sammanfatta och bedöma vetenskapen relaterad till den globala uppvärmningen, bedömer att den globala uppvärmningen till följd av mänsklig inverkan kommer att överstiga 1,5 grader år 2100 och att våra ekosystem kommer att påverkas negativt till icke återhämtningsbara nivåer. För att förbättra det kritiska läget har efterfrågan på förnybar energi ökat kraftigt. Till följd av detta så har vindkraftsindustrin utvecklatsi hög grad och utvecklas fortfarande. I detta kandidatexamensarbete undersöks en konceptidé om ett hopfällbart vindkraftverk för att öka årlig energiproduktion samt reducera de aerodynamiskalasterna. Hypotesen för detta arbete är att ett hopfällbart vindkraftverk kan ökaden årliga energiproduktionen med 100% genom en fördubbling av sveparean med samma mängd insatsmaterial. Konstruktionslösningen för hopfällbarhet antas vara löst av andra och tidigare konstruktionslösningar för hopfällbarhet har undersökts och presenterats. För att analysera en potentiell ökning av årlig energiproduktion användes NREL:s mjukvara WISDEM samt deras 3,4-MW landbaserade referensvindkraftverk. Resultatet tydde på att med dubbel sveparea kan man få en ökning med 79% av den årliga energiproduktionen, en ökning med 48% av lyftkraften och en ökning med 84%av motståndskraften. / During the last decade the environmental impact has become an increasingly growing problem. The IPCC have reported the ever increasingly environmental impact from fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases. Their assessment from 2021 notes that the environmental impact because of humans will lead to at least an increase of 1.5 degrees increase in temperature by the year 2100 and that our ecosystems will be irreversibly damaged. To combat these changes the demand for renewable energy sources has increased. This increase in demand has led to the wind energy sector growing rapidly with a lot of recent developments in the field. In this bachelor thesis a concept idea of a foldable wind turbine has been proposed. The goal is to determine if an increase in annual energy production of 100% is possible with a doubling of the rotor swept area and a constant mass. The mechanism for foldability is assumed to be invented and research on previous works looking into foldability in wind turbines has been performed. To analyze the potential increase in annual energy production the software WISDEM, developed by NREL, was used together with their 3.4-MW reference wind turbine. The results showed that with a doubled rotor swept area an increase in annual energy production of 79% was achieved together with an increase of 48% of the lift force and an increase of 84% of the drag force.

The growing need and desire for the harvesting of energy from everyday mechanical interactions impose a challenge on the current design of such systems. Often their nature indicates slow response times and unsteady AC voltages. The objective of this work is to present a new method of designing and controlling an oscillating energy harvesting system using a cutting-edge algorithm for fast determination of the optimal operating condition. In this thesis, an energy harvesting backpack, which captures energy from the interaction between the user and the spring decoupled load, is being introduced. The new control strategy, Maximum Energy Harvesting Control (MEHC), is developed and applied to the aforementioned system to evaluate its improvement over the basic Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm. MEHC algorithm can also be used in many different applications, ranging from ocean wave to sports shoes energy harvesting.

Un nouveau capteur acoustique sphérique autonome est proposé. Il est destiné à être immergé dans un milieu liquide ou pâteux pour mesurer certaines propriétés physiques du milieu et récupérer l'énergie vibratoire ambiante pour assurer son autonomie. Le capteur est composé de deux coquilles hémisphériques en plexiglas et d'une bague piézoélectrique en PZ26 fixée entre les deux coquilles. Cette structure peut être utilisée aussi bien en excitateur que capteur. Un modèle de simulation de la récupération d'énergie vibratoire a été développé en considérant seulement deux modes de vibration: mode épaisseur et mode radial. Pour chaque mode, le comportement de l’anneau est décrit par un circuit électromécanique équivalent reliant les ports mécaniques (forces et vitesses) au port électrique (tension et courant). Ce choix est guidé par la possibilité de combiner la partie électromécanique avec l'électronique qui traite l'énergie directement dans un simulateur basé sur Spice. Pour valider cette approche, une simulation par éléments finis a été réalisée et comparée aux résultats produits par le circuit électromécanique. Les fréquences de résonance ont également été vérifiées expérimentalement avec un analyseur d'impédance. Toutes ces vérifications donnent des résultats en très bon accord avec le modèle électromécanique proposé en termes de fréquences de résonance, de tension et de puissance collectées. Enfin, plusieurs validations expérimentales sont présentées avec un prototype de capteur sphérique. Ces validations montrent l’adéquation des prédictions avec les résultats expérimentaux. Finalement, un test du circuit de récupération est effectué en situation réelle. / A new spherical autonomous acoustic sensor is proposed. It is intended to be immersed in a liquid or pasty medium to measure some physical properties of the medium and should harvest ambient energy to ensure its autonomy. The sensor is composed of two Plexiglas half-spherical shells and a PZ26 piezoelectric ring clamped between the two shells. This structure can be used as well as in exciter or sensor. A simulation model of vibrational energy harvesting has been developed considering only two modes of vibration: thickness and radial modes. For each mode, the ring behavior is described by an equivalent electromechanical circuit connecting the mechanical ports (forces and velocities) to the electrical port (voltage and current). This choice is guided by the possibility to combine the electromechanical part with the electronics that process the energy directly in a Spice based simulator. To validate this approach, a finite elements simulation was realized and compared to the electromechanical circuit results. Resonance frequencies were also verified experimentally with an impedance analyzer. All these verifications give results in very good agreement with the proposed electromechanical model, as well as in terms of resonant frequencies, harvested voltage and power. Finally several experimental investigations are presented with a prototype of spherical sensor. These validations show the adequacy of the predictions with the experimental results. Finally, a test of the harvesting circuit is done in real situation.

Oscillating-foil hydrokinetic turbines have gained interest over the years to extract energy from renewable sources. The influence of the sweep angle on the performance of a fully-passive oscillating-plate hydrokinetic turbine prototype was investigated experimentally in the present work. The sweep angle was introduced to promote spanwise flow along the plate in order to manipulate the leading edge vortex (LEV) and hydrodynamically optimize the performance of the turbine. In the present work, flat plates of two configurations were considered: a plate with a 6° sweep angle and an unswept plate (control), which were undergoing fully-passive pitch and heave motions in uniform inflow at the Reynolds numbers ranging from 15 000 to 30 000. The resulting kinematic parameters and the energy extraction performance were evaluated for both plates. Planar (2D) particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to obtain patterns of the phase-averaged out-of-plane vorticity during the oscillation cycle. The circulation in the wake was then related to the induced-forces on the plate by calculating the moments of vorticity of the LEV with respect to the pitching axis of the plate. Tomographic (3D) PIV was implemented in evaluating the influence of the spanwise flow on the dynamics of the vortex structure in three-dimensional space. The rate of deformation of the vortex length was quantified by calculating the deformation terms embedded in the vorticity equations, then linked to the stability of the vortex. The results show evidence of delay of the shedding of LEV and increased vortex stability, in the case of the swept plate. The manipulation of the LEV by the spanwise flow was related to the induced kinematics exhibited by the prolonged heave forces experienced by the swept plate, which led to the higher power extraction performance at high inflow velocities. In the presence of spanwise flow, positive vortex stretching along the vortex line increased the stabilization of the vortex core and prevented the onset of helical vortex breakdown, observed in the case of the unswept plate. The use of the sweep profile on the plate has led to the improvement of energy extraction performance of the fully-passive hydrokinetic turbine. / Graduate

Cette thèse a pour but de découvrir la faisabilité et le potentiel de la récupération d'énergie à partir de rafales atmosphériques pour les micro et mini véhicules aériens sans pilote. L'atmosphère sert de grande source d'énergie pouvant être récoltée afin d'accroître la performance des petits UAV sous la forme d'une autonomie et d'une autonomie étendues. Il est bien connu que de nombreuses espèces d'oiseaux utilisent diverses techniques de vol pour obtenir des performances de vol étonnantes. Compte tenu du fait que les véhicules susmentionnés partagent la taille et la vitesse de vol avec des dépliants naturels, cette thèse peut être considérée comme une application des techniques de vol bio-inspirées pour les véhicules construits par l’homme. Cette étude de trois ans visait à établir une dérivation théorique des équations qui décrivent la dynamique de vol d'un aéronef en présence d'un environnement en rafales. La première réalisation a été la démonstration du mécanisme de récupération d'énergie et des paramètres d'influence à travers des simulations décrivant le vol en modèle de masse ponctuelle d'aéronef avec un contrôle optimisé de l'ascenseur en présence d'un profil de vent sinusoïdal et stochastique. La réalisation suivante est liée à un système sensoriel inspiré par la biologie qui utilise des mesures de pression des ailes pour estimer l’angle d’attaque local. Ce système particulier a été utilisé dans l’estimation du champ de vent, en tant que mécanisme décisif et protection contre le décrochage. Enfin, les dernières contributions sont liées à l’expérience et aux résultats obtenus lors d’essais en vol visant à prouver l’augmentation de l’état énergétique de l’avion lors des manœuvres de récupération d’énergie. La première campagne d'essais en vol a été réalisée avec un mini-UAV disponible dans le commerce équipé de sondes à trous multiples et d'un contrôleur conçu sur mesure. Cette campagne a démontré l’augmentation de l’état d’énergie dans un fort gradient de vent horizontal. La deuxième campagne d'essais en vol a été réalisée avec une aile volante équipée d'un système de détection de pression pour l'estimation du champ de vent. Cette campagne a également impliqué des économies supplémentaires sur la consommation d'énergie électrique lors des vols de récupération d'énergie. / This thesis aims at discovering the feasibility and potential of energy-harvesting from atmospheric gusts for micro and mini unmanned aerial vehicles. The atmosphere serves as a great source of energy that can be harvested in order to increase performance of small UAVs in form of extended endurance and range. It is well known that many bird species use various flight techniques for achieving astonishing flight performances. Considering the fact that aforementioned vehicles share size and flight speed with natural flyers, this thesis can be considered as an application of bioinspired flight techniques for man made vehicles. This three-year study set out to establish a theoretical derivation of equations that describe flight dynamics of an aircraft in presence of gusty environment. The first achievement was demonstration of energy harvesting mechanism and influencing parameters through simulations that describe aircraft point mass model flight with optimized control of elevator in presence of sinusoidal and stochastic wind profile. The next achievement is related to a biologically inspired sensory system that uses wing pressure measurements for local angle of attack estimation. That particular system found purpose in wind field estimation, as decisive mechanism and stall protection. Finally, last contributions are related to experience and results gained from flight tests which aimed to prove increase in energy state of the aircraft while performing energy harvesting maneuvers. The first flight test campaign was performed with commercially available mini UAV equipped with multi-hole probes and custom designed controller. This campaign demonstrated the raise in energy state within strong horizontal wind gradient. The second flight test campaign was done with a flying wing equipped with pressure sensing system for wind field estimation. This campaign also involved additional insight savings in electrical power consumption during energy harvesting flights.