Study On Combined Oscillating Floater Buoy Wave Energy Converter

Under the multi-pressure and the influence of the energy, environment, economyand population, exploring and development of new energy have become a trend.Development and utilization of new energy can not only improve the energy structure,but also can carry forward the construction of the low carbon economy, resource-savingand environment-friendly society. Among a number of new energy, ocean energy is ofparticular concern to many countries, which is provided by the ocean the accounting fornearly71percent of the Earth’s surface, including tidal energy, wave energy, thermalenergy, salinity energy, current energy, offshore wind energy and so on. Particularly,wave energy is the highest degree of practicability and commercialization, because of itswidely distributed, high energy flux density, low price, etc.There are various forms of wave power devices, but the reliability, stability andsecurity has been the bottleneck and restrictions of the wave power generation devicedevelopment. From the development trend of the domestic and international point of view,the oscillating buoy wave power device has become main stream and hot spots for waveenergy development, called the third-generation device, whose structure of energy intakeis the oscillating floater buoy, and the structure of energy transfer is the hydraulicmechanism.The paper presents an oscillating floater buoy wave energy converter in line with thecharacteristics of China’s wave energy resource. The key of the oscillating floater buoywave energy converter is the floater buoy, by which the device captures the wave power.The transformation between the floater’s mechanical power and the wave power is thefirst step of the energy conversion, and is the most crucial factor of the conversionefficiency at the same time. There are many factors influencing the efficiency, includingthe shape selection, the size and the draft of the floater buoy, the conditions of the waveand so on. The paper starts from the theoretical analysis of the motion response of thecylinder buoy, which is easier because it has a regular shape, and then comparing twosolutions’ similarities and differences. And then analyses other two types, the cone andthe sphere, and gets the conclusion that the conical floater buoy is optimal for capturing the wave energy. The last, combining the numerical simulation about other types buoysand different conditions by AQWA, optimize the design of the oscillating floater buoy.