Several alternative ways of producing energy came up as the world took conscience of the finite availability of fossil fuels and the environmental consequences of its use and processing. Wave and tidal energy are among the so called green energies. Wave energy converters have been under research for the past two decades and yet there hasn’t been one technology that gathered everyone’s acceptance as being the most suitable one. The present work is focused on a self-rectifying turbine for wave energy harnessing. It’s a self-rectifying biplane Wells with an intermediate stator. The main goal is to evaluate the performance of such a turbine. Two different analyses were performed: experimental and computational. The experimental tests were made so that efficiency, velocity profiles and loss coefficients could be calculated. To do so scaled-down prototypes were built from scratch and tested experimentally. The 3D numerical analysis was possible by using a CFD commercial code: Fluent 6.3. Several simulations were performed for different flow coefficients. Three different degrees of mesh refinement were applied and k-ε turbulence model was the one chosen to simulate the viscous behavior of the flow through the turbine. A steady-state analysis is due and two mixing planes were used at the interfaces between the rotors and the stator. In the end comparisons are made between the experimental and numerical results

La qualité de la puissance injectée au réseau électrique est une problématique importante pour le développement des énergies marines renouvelables, et en particulier de l'énergie des vagues, ou énergie houlomotrice. En effet la puissance produite par les systèmes houlomoteurs à entrainement direct est très fluctuante (fluctuations de l'ordre de la seconde) à cause de la nature oscillante de la ressource. Afin d'étudier l'impact de l'intégration des ces systèmes sur les réseaux électriques, un modèle permettant de représenter la chaîne depuis la vague jusqu'au réseau électrique a été développé. Les simulations effectuées à l'aide de ce modèle pour différents types de réseau électrique et différents états de mer ont montré que la mise en place de solutions pour améliorer la qualité de la puissance produite était nécessaire. Ainsi l'effet du regroupement et de la dispersion spatiale des systèmes houlomoteurs sur la qualité de la puissance a été étudiée. L'insertion d'un système de stockage dans la chaîne wave-to-wire afin de lisser la puissance a aussi été considérée. Enfin, une partie du modèle a pu être validée à l'aide d'un banc de test Hardware-in-the-loop comprenant un banc moteur, des armoires de puissance pour émuler électronique de puissance et le réseau électrique et un module de supercondensateurs. / Power quality is an important issue for the development of marine renewable energies, in particular wave energy. Due to the oscillatory nature of the oceans waves, the wave energy converters output power profile can present fluctuations in the range of seconds. The impact of these devices on the electric grid therefore needs to be investigated for wave farms to be connected to the grid. In order to emulate an operating direct drive wave energy converter, study power quality improvement and test different control strategies, a wave-to-wiremodel has been developed.Simulations carried out with this model for different grid strengths and different levels of sea-state showed that it is necessary to foster solutions to improve power quality. Thus, the wave energy converters aggregating and dispersion effects on power quality have been investigated. As it does not seem sufficient to meet the grid codes requirements, another solution have been considered, consisting of the insertion of an energy storage system into the chain. Finally, a part of the model has been validated using a hardware-in-the-Loop test bench including a motorbench, power modules to emulate the grid and power electronic's control and super capacitors module.

Wave ocean energy is a source of renewable energy which is gaining interest in the modern world. In contrast to other well-researched renewable energy sources such as wind energy, wave ocean energy is under the development phase. Governments around the world are encouraging the research of harnessing wave energy. As of now, there are different concepts to harness energy from waves. Tribological components are one of the main aspects that need attention in these wave energy converters. The moving components such as bearings can be the life-determining component of the entire device. This thesis provides conceptual solutions to adapt an existing start-stop bearing test rig to the conditions of wave energy converters. The test rig can test different bearing sused in the wave energy converters. The new design intends to provide scaled wave energy conditions. These conditions are mainly influenced by the oscillating movement of the bearings, the complex load condition and the salty environment. Since the testing of bearings in wave energy converters is in the initial stage, modular designs are implemented to test different types of bearings. / Se filen