GOALI: Energy Efficient and Reliable Motion Mechanism for Ocean Wave Energy Harvesting

据估计，2010年美国波浪能源的潜力将占总发电量的64%。超过53%的美国人口居住在距离海岸50英里的范围内，所以海浪为没有远距离输电的人口提供了现成的机会。动力输出——将机械能转换成电能的机械装置——被认为是波浪能技术中最重要的一个元素，也是迄今为止许多海浪能系统失败的原因。为了实现未开发的海浪的高电力潜力，迫切需要革命性的电力起飞。这个学术与工业联络资助机会（GOALI）项目的目标是通过实验和理论研究创新海洋动力起飞机制的设计、建模和控制，以解决波浪能收集中最基本的挑战。动力起飞提供了更高的能量转换效率、更高的可靠性和无与伦比的紧凑性，并完全消除了液压元件对环境的潜在污染。它可以集成到点吸收器，波衰减器，波终止器，或其他类型的波能量转换器，只要涉及振荡波运动。因此，这项研究的成功将有助于确立美国在海浪能领域的领导地位。该项目预计将开辟一条可持续的能源途径，收集大量尚未开发的海浪资源，以满足日益紧迫的国家能源和能源安全需求。本项目将开展能源制造、海洋流体力学、机电一体化设计、多物理场建模、控制和现场研究等多学科研究。最先进的海浪能技术要么使用线性电磁发电机直接驱动动力起飞，要么使用中间流体间接驱动动力起飞。直接驱动简单可靠，但需要笨重的永久磁铁；间接驱动结构紧凑，但在复杂性、可靠性和效率等方面存在严重不足。研究小组将创造并研究一种基于“机械运动整流器”的电源输出，将不规则的振荡波运动独特地转化为发电机的规则单向旋转，具有直接和间接驱动的优点。研究小组还将从现代电气工程的新视角，包括二极管和晶体管，系统地研究振动能量收集合成。多体动态运动放大也将被研究，以显著提高功率提取能力。

The potential of wave energy source in the US is estimated to be 64% of the total electricity generated in 2010. Over 53% of the US population lives within 50 miles of the coasts, so ocean waves offer ready opportunity to provide electricity for the population without long-distance electricity transmission. The power takeoff - the machinery to convert the mechanical energy into electricity - is considered as the single most important element in wave energy technology, and underlies many of the failures of ocean wave energy systems to date. Revolutionary power takeoff is urgently needed in order to realize the high electricity potential from the untapped ocean waves. The objective of this Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project is to experimentally and theoretically investigate the design, modeling and control of an innovative ocean power takeoff mechanism to solve the most fundamental challenge in wave energy harvesting. The power takeoff offers much higher energy conversion efficiency, enhanced reliability, and unmatched compactness, and completely eliminates hydraulic components for potential environmental pollution. It can be integrated into the point absorbers, wave attenuators, wave terminators, or other type of wave energy converter whenever oscillatory wave motion is involved. Therefore, the success of this research will help establishing the leadership role of the US in the area of ocean wave energy. This project is expected to pave a sustainable energy pathway of harvesting vast but untapped ocean wave sources to meet the increasingly urgent national demand for energy and energy security. Multidisciplinary research on energy manufacturing, marine hydrodynamics, mechatronics design, multi-physics modeling, control, and in-field study will be conduct in this project. The state-of-the-art ocean wave energy technology either uses direct-drive power takeoffs with linear electromagnetic generator or indirect-drive power takeoffs using intermediate fluid. The direct drives are simple and reliable but require heavy and bulk permanent magnets; the indirect drives are more compact but suffer from serious shortcomings on the complexity, reliability, and efficiency. The research team will create and investigate a "mechanical motion rectifier" based power takeoff to uniquely convert the irregular oscillatory wave motion into regular unidirectional rotation of the generator, having the advantages of direct and indirect drives. The research team will also systematically study the vibration energy harvesting synthesis from new perspective of modern electrical engineering including diodes and transistors. Multi-body dynamic motion magnification will also be investigated to significantly enhance the power extraction capacity.