Performance of a Direct-Driven Wave Energy Point Absorber with High Inertia Rotatory Power Take-off

Abstract

An alternating rotatory generator using an eddy current break is developed as a physicalscale model of a direct-driven floating point absorber power take-off (PTO) for wave tank tests. It isshown that this design is a simple and cost-effective way to get an accurate linear damping PTO. Thedevice shows some beneficial characteristics, making it an interesting option for full scale devices:For similar weights the inertia can be significantly higher than for linear generators, allowing it tooperate with natural frequencies close to typical wave frequencies. The influence of the higher inertiaon the power absorption is tested using both a numerical simulation and physical wave tank tests.With the increased inertia the PTO is able to absorb more than double the energy of a comparabledirect-driven linear generator in some sea states. Moreover, the alternating rotatory generator allowsthe absorption characteristic to be tuned by changing the inertia and the generator damping