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Title:
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The Archimedes wave swing: a new way of utilising wave energy
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Author(s):
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Published by:
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Publication date:
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ECN
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1995
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ECN report number:
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Document type:
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ECN-I--95-030
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Other
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Number of pages:
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Full text:
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17
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Download PDF
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Abstract:
Many wave energy conversion systems have been invented of which some haveeven been built and tested. Projects now being evaluated are: a land based
Oscillating Water Column (OWC) on the Azores funded by Portugal, a wave
energy system installed on a floating platform off Japan and an OWC in
Scotland. An OWC in Norway, which had been in use for 5 years, was recently
put out of operation by a hurricane. Up until now, however, success has been
limited. This arises from the strongly varying level of wave energy. At one
time the sea can be a mass of high waves whereas some time later it may be
calm again. Whilst the capacity of a wave power system is rated for the
average energy level, the structural design has to take into account the
loads from the highest waves expected which makes its construction very
expensive. A second disadvantage of the varying supply of wave energy is the
limited time it is used to its full capacity. For a considerable amount of
time it is operating only at part load while the running costs tend to remain
constant. Research is being performed all over the world in order to overcome
these drawbacks. Recently the small Dutch company TEAMWORK TECHNIEK proposed
a completely new principle which reduces these disadvantages. The principle
of the 1993 patented Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS) system is based on the
unstable behavior of an air-filled underwater vessel with an opening at the
bottom. Attention is paid to the work done so far, how the development and
testing of AWS will be proceeded. 9 figs.
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