Design, Construction and Testing of a Hydraulic Power Take-Off for Wave Energy Converters

Energies

Joseba Lasa¹  Juan Carlos Antolin¹  Carlos Angulo²  Patxi Estensoro¹  Maider Santos¹ 

[1] Energy Unit, Tecnalia, Mikeletegi pasealekua 2-Miramon E-20009 Donostia-San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa), Spain; E-Mails:;Mechanical Engineering Department, University of the Basque Country, Alameda Urquijo s/n 48013 Bilbao (Bizkaia), Spain; E-Mail:

关键词: power take-off;    hydraulic PTO;    wave energy converters;    WEC;    validation tests of PTO;    construction of PTO;    mathematical modeling of PTO;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en5062030

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This paper presents the construction, mathematical modeling and testing of a scaled universal hydraulic Power Take-Off (PTO) device for Wave Energy Converters (WECs). A specific prototype and test bench were designed and built to carry out the tests. The results obtained from these tests were used to adjust an in-house mathematical model. The PTO was initially designed to be coupled to a scaled wave energy capture device with a low speed and high torque oscillating motion and high power fluctuations. Any Energy Capture Device (ECD) that fulfils these requirements can be coupled to this PTO, provided that its scale is adequately defined depending on the rated power of the full scale prototype. The initial calibration included estimation of the pressure drops in the different components, the pressurization time of the oil inside the hydraulic cylinders and the volumetric efficiency of the complete circuit. Since the overall efficiency measured during the tests ranged from 0.69 to 0.8 and the dynamic performance of the PTO was satisfactory, the results are really promising and it is believed that this solution might prove effective in real devices.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.