Tribological and Mechanical Design Considerations for Wave Energy Collecting Devices

Abstract

Creating new sources of renewable and sustainable energy is a critical problem in the world today and will continue to be so in the future. A major sector of renewable energy is the hydro energy, and in particular, harvesting wave energy of seas and lakes. Various types of designs have been suggested for marine energy sources. These new applications bring new problems for mechanical engineers and tribologists. Operating in marine conditions is difficult due to the biofouling, water contamination, particulate contamination, and other tribological issues. Efficiency and optimization are major issues in the energy generation industry are. In this chapter, we review offshore marine and lake wave energy systems and discuss in more detail wave energy collector (WEC) that is being developed and optimized at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.