New SWELLS Prototype
There is an exciting project underway currently at the WCWI. A scaled mechanical prototype has been created which will allow a Wave Energy Converter (WEC) device to improve the power which it is gathering from the ocean. The prototype design was undertaken by a group of 4th year mechanical engineering students at the University of Victoria, sponsored by the West Coast Wave Initiative. A brief explanation of the motivating theory behind this device is explained below.
The ocean wave spectrum changes regularly over time. These changes are accompanied by adjustments to the operating conditions of a standard WEC device. WECs designed without tunable characteristics will efficiently convert energy from ocean waves in a certain bandwidth only. A WEC designed with a wide band tunable feature is theoretically capable of following the maximum energy conversion point across varying wave conditions. This concept is analogous to utilizing a solar tracking device instead of a fixed position photovoltaic system in order to follow the position of the sun allowing more solar energy incident per unit area of the solar panel.
As such one of the projects the West Coast Wave Initiate is investigating is the development of a mechanically tunable self-reacting Wave Energy Converter, assuming knowledge of the incident wave spectrum. Conceptually the tuning mechanism is based on a mass oscillating about a helical joint which is kinematically coupled to a flyball. Adjusting the radial distance of the masses on the flyball from the rotation shaft changes the moment of inertia in the system. The inertia of the system is an important control parameter as it determines how the WEC will respond to a wave at a particular frequency.
With these concepts in mind the West Coast Wave Initiative sponsored a team of four undergraduate students (Jason Kum, Kale Bateman, Lovisa Thorsteinsdottir, and Reilly Fong) to investigate and design the flyball mechanism capable of adjusting the system inertia as their 4th year mechatronics capstone project. The output of their project was a successful prototype capable of adjusting inertia utilizing signals sent from an Arduino™ microcontroller.
Looking forward the team will continue lab based tests on this prototype in order to identify opportunities for design improvements followed by development of a second prototype which will be designed for implementation into a WEC device for future testing in a wave tank.