| NSF Org: |
OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 29, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 5, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1841361 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Kandace Binkley
kbinkley@nsf.gov (703)292-7577 OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | December 30, 2017 |
| End Date: | March 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $74,810.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $101,159.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2017 = $26,350.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3400 N CHARLES ST BALTIMORE MD US 21218-2608 (443)997-1898 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
MD US 21218-2686 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | OCEAN TECH & INTERDISC COORDIN |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
Long-term, unattended operation of oceanographic instrumentation is dependent on the availability of power to operate the instruments. The PIs will investigate new wave power conversion technologies for use in operating oceanographic instrumentation at sea.
Current wave energy conversion technologies make wave power bulky and uneconomical for oceanographic and ocean science applications. The PIs request funding to investigate enhancements that may enable integration of wave power conversion hardware into small oceanographic buoys. The proposed effort represents a significant advance over current wave energy conversion approaches and is expected to be an important step towards making wave power utilization cost-effective for ocean sensing applications.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Introduction
The energy from ocean waves is denser, more predictable, and more continuously available than solar or wind energy. Unfortunately, commonly used current approaches to designing wave energy converters include a floating-body tunable only to a particular region in the scatter diagram, and the resulting unsatisfactory mean annual power conversion efficiency is often compensated for by increased device size. For this reason, buoys and moorings supporting ocean sensing instrumentation typically use solar, wind, or battery power. Which in turn means that most measurements are restricted to phenomena for which low-power sensors can be used.
The goal of this research was to investigate an approach to control the oscillations of the oceanographic buoy such that it can convert the most power from the waves around it. The work performed included (i) investigation of deterministic control techniques and wave-propagation, buoy dynamic models, (ii) application of the control method in simulations of buoy, (iii) application in laboratory (i.e. wave tanks), (iv) performance investigation in realistic applications such as the Ocean Observatories Initiative.
Outcomes
The project was successful in achieving the goals by completing the tasks listed above. Specifically, the following outcomes were realized.
1. Analytical models for buoy dynamics and wave propagation were utilized to generate computer simulations. The simulations were used in predicting the daily and monthly power conversion performance of the oceanographic buoy (1.2m radius) in a range of wave conditions spanning one year. Power conversion rates observed were 5-7 times greater than currently possible with the same geometry and size. Optimally converted power levels ranged from 200 W (in June/July) to 4-7 kW (December-January) in the 2015 wave conditions off Martha?s Vineyard, MA.
2. Detailed experiments were completed on a 1/10-scale model in 3 wave tank in realistic irregular wave conditions: (i) a narrow wave flume, (ii) a curved wave tank, and (iii) a circular wave tank (FlowWave). All tanks were state-of-the art facilities at the University of Edinburgh. Measured performance in moderate wave conditions was 4-5 times greater than standard conversion techniques.
3. Work led to 4 publications in archival journals. An invited workshop presentation in 2017 included (and generated the interest of) program officers from the Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office. Notably, DOE has since 2017-2018 taken an active interest in developing small wave energy devices for ocean sensing, as witnessed by their recent funding opportunity announcements and reports.
4. Based on this project, a proposal was developed by this PI in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) to conduct pilot studies on a wave-energy converter buoy developed by MBARI, with APL supporting the wave measurements and other aspects. An NSF-funded project based on this proposal is currently underway.
Last Modified: 07/19/2020
Modified by: Umesh A Korde
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