The point absorber, one of the most popular types of ocean wave energy converter (WEC), usually consists of a rigid body buoy that can be efficiently modeled using existing WEC simulation tools. However, new wave energy technologies have looked to utilize flexible buoy structures to decrease costs, improve power generation, and increase portability. In addition to replacing rigid body designs, the combination of multiple renewable energy sources is another area that shows promising potential for increasing WEC power generation. With these concepts in mind, this work considers a new WEC design that features a flexible-inflatable buoy, an ocean current harvesting turbine, and a buoy shape that has been optimized for simultaneous wave and current energy harvesting. For this device, conventional modeling techniques cannot be used due to the highly nonlinear hydrodynamic interactions that result between the flexible buoy and the ocean waves. As a result, a Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) model must be used to determine how the flexibility of the buoy will influence the device's power generation. Currently, high-fidelity FSI modeling approaches are computationally expensive and unsuitable for early design decisions. As a result, this thesis utilizes a mid-fidelity method, the generalized modes modeling approach, to accurately and efficiently model the FSI of a WEC's flexible buoy. The resulting flexible buoy model was then compared to a rigid design to determine the performance differences between a rigid and flexible buoy, with a complex, optimized shape. / Master of Science / The ocean is a vast potential energy resource with a variety of different sources of renewable energy. Of these sources, ocean waves and ocean currents are two potentially massive power reserves present in many coastal areas. To capture energy from these sources, this work discusses the development of a device that can harvest energy from ocean waves and ocean currents simultaneously. In addition to harvesting energy from multiple sources, this device also features a flexible-inflatable buoy, with a shape that has been optimized for this unique application. However, since this device utilizes flexible materials, traditional modeling techniques used for rigid body designs would not be applicable. As a result, this work looks to model the interaction between the flexible buoy and the ocean waves to accurately predict the power generation of this device's wave energy converter.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119416 |
| Date | 12 June 2024 |
| Creators | Lenderink, Corbin Robert |
| Contributors | Mechanical Engineering, Zuo, Lei, Hajj, Muhammad Ramiz, Tafti, Danesh K. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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