1. Assessment of the power conversion of wave energy converters based on experimental tests
- Author
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Paulo Rosa-Santos, Claudio A. Rodríguez, Francisco Taveira-Pinto, and Faculdade de Engenharia
- Subjects
Wave energy converter ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,Computer science ,020209 energy ,Energy Engineering and Power Technology ,Engineering and technology ,02 engineering and technology ,Technological sciences, Engineering and technology ,Power (physics) ,Reliability engineering ,Set (abstract data type) ,Fuel Technology ,Nuclear Energy and Engineering ,Ciências Tecnológicas, Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias ,Absorbed power ,Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Instrumentation (computer programming) ,Gross efficiency ,Wave power - Abstract
Power estimation is the most important task in the performance assessment of wave energy converters (WEC). Depending on the type of WEC, power take-off (PTO) system, and available instrumentation, different approaches are usually applied to assess power from experimental tests. Since neither for tests execution nor for the analyses exist standard methodologies, the estimated power can significantly differ among the approaches, thus, introducing inaccuracies in the assessment of the WEC’s performance. This study analyzed an extensive set of experimental results of a WEC and applied different power estimation approaches to compare and validate the obtained results. The strengths and weaknesses of those methodologies were analyzed and discussed. The major outcomes were: (a) PTO damping characterization based on bench tests can lead to unrealistic values of the WEC’s absorbed power; (b) the hybrid (experimental plus numerical) approach provide more reliable results than the traditional ones; (c) the kinetic energy harvester approach underestimates power but can be useful for preliminary qualitative performance assessments; (d) the new proposed gross efficiency index allows the definition of upper boundaries for wave power conversion as well as the identification of the wave conditions for which WEC performance can be improved.
- Published
- 2018
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