Date of Award

10-5-2017

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering

Keywords

array system, piezoelectric, small scale convertor, Wave energy, wave surface

Supervisor

Roussinova, Vesselina

Supervisor

Stoilov, Vesselin

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The renewable energy is an important subject especially today as the world is facing the results of the pollution and depletion of the conventional energy resources. Around 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water where the energy of the waves/tides could be used as alternative source of energy that is sustainable and environmental friendly. Most of the research efforts are focused on the development of the large-scale technologies that can operate in the open Ocean. The potential of the low-frequency and small-amplitude wave condition in shallow rivers and lakes where most of the world wave energy exists has not been explored yet. The objective of the current study is to design and develop new concepts for wave energy extraction, which depend on oscillatory wave motion and have the ability to convert the small and medium waves. The proposed devices are self-generating without any external sources, which makes them lightweight and naturally floating on the surface of the water. Feasibility studies of both designs were performed using numerical modeling and field experiments. The final prototypes achieved power output of 5.0±0.6mW and 0.25±0.01mW, respectively. Array systems implementing both concepts were also introduced to improve the performance of the devices.

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