Modeling, Simulation and Dynamic control of a Wave Energy Converter

Abstract: The energy in ocean waves is a renewable energy resource not yet fully exploited. Research in converting ocean energy to useful electricity has been ongoing for about 40 years, but no one has so far succeed to do it at sufficiently low cost. CorPower Ocean has developed a method, which in theory can achieve this. It uses a light buoy and a control strategy called Phase Control. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a mathematical model of this method - using LinearWave Theory to derive the hydrodynamic forces - and from the simulated results analyze the energy output of the method. In the process we create a program that will help realizing and improving the method further. The model is implemented and simulated in the simulation program Simulink. On the basis of the simulated results, we can concludes that the CorPower Ocean method is promising. The outcome shows that the energy output increases - up to five times- compared to conventional methods.