Theoretical Analysis of Harvesting Energy from Water Waves
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chen, Yi-Sheng
Abstract
In this thesis, we perform a theoretical study on harvesting the surface or interface wave energy from layer(s) of liquid. Scavenging the vibration energy surrounding us is the core idea of this research. Such vibration energy is used as a source to exert force on a rectangular tank which is partial filled with liquid(s), and thus drives the wave motion. We consider two major cases; one is a tank containing a single-layer liquid exerted by either a lateral or pitching excitation. We harvest the surface wave energy at the free surface. The other is a tank consisting of the two layers of immiscible liquid exerted by a lateral excitation. There are two harvesting locations for the latter case, one at the free surface and one at the interface of the double-layer liquid.
We place a PVDF bimorph on the interface between two liquids or on the free surface of the liquid. Under the assumption that the displacement of the PVDF bimorph along the gravitational direction is equal to the sloshing height of liquid at the interface or at the free surface, we calculated the power harvested in the PVDF bimorph. We found that if we want to resonate at a lower frequency, we have to place the PVDF bimorph at the interface of the liquid layers. However, if we intend to resonate at a higher frequency, putting the PVDF bimorph at the free surface can harvest more electric power. Moreover, the power output for the single-layer liquid is greater when it is under the pitching excitation case compared with the lateral excitation case.
Subjects
Energy harvesting
PVDF piezoelectric film
Surface and interface wave
Double-layer sloshing
Pitching and lateral translating excitation
Type
thesis
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