Investigation on the oscillating buoy wave power device

Abstract:

Considering the Froude number of the model and of the prototype identical, with a scale factor of 10, a model of oscillating buoy (OD) wave power device was designed and built, and a model test was carried out in a wave tank of Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion. In the test, the incident waves were simple harmonic, and computers collected the experimental data. The result of experimental data processing shows that the capture width ratio of the OD is nearly equal to that of an oscillating water column (OWC) wave power device, the total efficiency of the OD is much higher than that of the OWC, and the cost of the OD is lower than that of the OWC in the same dimensions. Therefore the OD is a promising wave power device, although it is at the cost of the reliability of the device. If the OD is used in China where the wave energy stream is lower, with effective protection the device could run in the most effective way.