Numerical Simulations of WEC (Wave Energy Conversion) Device Used for Oceanic Data Buoys

摘要

Moored oceanic data buoys measure ocean properties and transmit thedata to land via satellites. The current battery power system for theseoperations requires significant expenses for replacing an old batterywith a new battery regularly. To reduce the costs and use the greenenergy, this paper proposes an application of adopting a wave energyconversion (WEC) device as their permanent or semi-permanent powersource. Numerical simulations of the motions of a buoy are performedby the wave-body analysis software, COUPLE. Based on the predictedmotions of a buoy, produced electrical energy is estimated by applyingan iterative scheme to estimate equivalent damping of a hydraulicsystem as its Power Take-Off (PTO) system.