Ocean Wave Power

[Aelric]

I just thought I'd post this.  Found it on CNN, kinda made me smile a bit to see more people working on alternative energy.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/06/science.competition.ap/index.html

Thought that kid did a great job :-)

[p0lizei]

I wonder if the boy reads the Sydney Morning Herald, because a few months ago there was a story about a guy who has such a device built and ready for field testing.  It's too bad that the CNN article doesn't go too much into detail, because the Australian man's device functioned off of ocean currents, and I'm wondering if this is the same principal behind the boy's generator or not.

[Chagrin]

A web search digs up an abstract (from Siemens) that says the device works on the principle of gyroscopic precession.

Here's how I understand it:

If you take a "top" and spin it in (for example) a clockwise direction, as it slows down it will slowly begin to wobble in a circle until the point where it loses all of its energy and falls down. The wobble in this case would be in the counter-clockwise direction. If you could touch the top (without excessive friction) and force it to wobble in the clockwise direction the top's spin would increase.

Use slow-moving (but strong) ocean waves to actuate a rotor to move in this manner and you can accelerate the spin of the rotor.  

[skravlinge]

There are many proposal then new technology  are about to come. Many wave-powerplant seems to me a bit complicated and gives moderat output.

The costal waves around UK and Norway would be very suitable for wave-power. There are plants in work. The most promising system I think is the simplest, and a system you can scale up, without duplicating a lot of small complicated apparatus. The system using waves to change airpressure and feed a windgenerator is simple. A working plant is in UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1032148.stm

show how it works. This System is scalable without making farms with a lot of tiny apparatus.

[wooferhound]

I've been reading a lot of articles about this . . .

http://renewablesoffshore.blogspot.com/2004/11/new-ocean-energy-invention-by-high.html

http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu/EDUCATION/Isaacs04.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041125/news_1mi25invent.html

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/11/16/news/coastal/encinitas/11_15_0420_21_57.txt

and here is a picture of his prototype . . .

It's a generator that needs power to run. You need power to run the motor that spins the gyroscope that resists the motion of the sea and spins a Tape Drive Motor to make power. The articles explain that this device is environmentally benign, doesen't it need batteries to start the motor after a calm day at sea. I just wonder how does the thing power itself enough to generate power off of the minimal effect of a rocking motion at sea ?

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I remember 30ish years ago seeing a design for a boat powered by wave action.

It was a trimaran, and the amas (outriggers) were not mounted solidly to the center hull.  Instead there was a pivot that allowed some flex, and a "shock absorber" that was actually a hydraulic pump piston.

The wave action "flexed" the line through the three hulls, pumping hydraulic fluid, which then powered a hydraulic motor driving the prop.

You can transfer a hysterical amount of power through a tiny hydraulic pump/motor system, and there is enormous energy in the waves.

Seems to me a raft built on the same principles, anchored just offshore, could both pull most of the power from the waves and attenuate the waves to create a calmer area between it and shore.  Something like a seawall outside an inland passage, but doubling as an alternative energy source and thus twice as useful.

[ghurd]

I too remember a wave boat (bardge sp?).

This one had a horizontal wing under the front and back. They could passivly piviot up and down, say 30' off level. The piviot was on the leading edge.

As the front went up the wave, the wing pivioted (leading edge up), and the rising boat caused the wing to pull the boat forward.  As the boat went down the wave, the wing pivioted the other way (leading edge down), pulling the boat forward.

Same with the rear of the boat.

I say wing, but flat plywood would work the same. I don't think lift was a factor, more drag at an angle. Almost like the boat was sliding down a hill weather it was rising or falling.

Must be a better way to explain it... but I can't think of how.

G-