A WAVE-2-WIRE EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE NEW "SEABREATH† WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER: THE HYDRAULIC RESPONSE

Abstract

In view of a potential design of a 2 kW small scale prototype of a wave energy converter named Seabreath, the dimensioning of the power take off, generator and relative electrical equipment is under investigation. This note presents an innovative research focusing on a holistic description of the behaviour of this device. Within a Marinet application (FP7 Research Infrastructure Action) named "Multi-chamber oscillating water column device for harvesting Ocean Renewable Energy† (MORE), electrical experiments have been carried out in the "hardware in the loop† test bench in Tecnalia laboratory, Bilbao, in order to test different control strategies. For these experiments, the Electrical and hydrodynamic response need to be fully coupled. The note describes how the available hydrodynamic model of the Seabreath has been modified to be coupled to the new electric experiments. Since the electrical tests are being used to calibrate an electrical numerical model, the procedure depicts an innovative and complete type of wave-2-wire model of a wave energy converter.