Breadcrumb
Wave trapping and distensible wave energy converters
Thu 21 March 2013, 14:00
John Chaplin
Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton
Organiser: Mark Woodhouse
ABSTRACT
This talk is in two parts. The first covers some recent measurements of water waves radiated by two parallel circular cylinders oscillating with prescribed motions in a free surface. The experiments include cases identified by Porter & Evans (JFM633, 2009) in which waves generated by freely floating cylinders, following the same motions, would be trapped.
Secondly, longitudinal wave propagation in fluid-filled distensible tubes has long been the subject of research, much of it in connection with attempts to model the cardiovascular system. Some similar principles apply to the Anaconda, a wave energy converter that consists of a large rubber tube, filled and pressurised with sea water, that floats just beneath the sea surface, aligned with oncoming water waves. Under resonant conditions, the amplitude of the oscillatory internal flow increases with distance along the tube, driving a turbine at the stern. Predictions of power capture will be compared with laboratory measurements.