Energy patent

Known art

Wave power generators are known to use several techniques to convert energy from
waves. Oscillating water columns OWC used under water pressure changes to oscillate
water columns in chambers which father compress air trapped in said chamber and
allowed pass through turbines which further generate electric power. The disadvantage of
this apparatus is that a lot of wave energy is reflected.
It usually requires big structures usually land base which also consume expensive beach
land resources.
Another known method to convert wave energy is to harness float movement on the
water surface, the floats move relatively to other structural elements like other floats,
Sea or land based structures, sea bed or even relatively to big inertial mass element which
lags behind the float movement. The floats usually move in angular or vertical
displacements, this relative movement is harnessed to extract power.
In patent no#CA02543439 flat floats positioned perpendicular to the wave movement.
The floats are pushed towards and away from each other by the wave induced under
water currents.
The disadvantage of this arrangement is that a major part of the wave energy is reflected
and transmitted by and through the proposed structure. This kind of arrangement results
in a narrow bandwidth i.e. it will be affective for extracting energy from waves only of a
certain wave length. It is not affective for a wide range of wave lengths.
In WO2004088129 an energy extraction apparatus is proposed comprising an amplifier
element effective to translate forward velocity of water of a wave relative to the element
into and upward force of the element. This arrangement amplifies the buoyant force when
the peek of the wave is over the element. This arrangement has several limitations: when
the element is coupled to a buoyant element, they require an extra massive structural
element that the generator would be linked to in order to exploit the relative movement
between the float and massive structure.
In patent US4403475, JP2006257898 and US4400940 effective arrangements are
proposed. The disadvantages are that all require massive structural constructions on the
sea bed and they have narrow bandwidth which means, that their effectiveness drop
sharply as the wave length differs from the designed one.
Summary of the invention

In the proposed embodiments of this invention the drawbacks of previous art are
overcome. In one preferred embodiment of this invention a horizontal submersed fin is
linked to a float, the fin is allowed to move horizontally relative to the float. The fin is
positioned in a manner that would produce a downward force while a horizontal current
is present in the wave advancing direction. The cycloid like water current induced by the
waves would produce oscillating vertical forces on the fin which are essentially opposite
to the buoyant vertical force acting on the float. These vertical opposite forces move the
float relative to the fin, this movement harnessed to empower an energy converter
generator. In this arrangement the fin element has a dual role, it extracts power from the
waves and it acts as a structural element that the float can move in relation to while the
power generator is linked to both elements.
In another preferred embodiment several floats are linked in a chain like articulated
structure where each float is linked to the adjacent one through a pivot that allows
adjacent floats to move in angular displacement. The relative angular displacements
is used to drive hydraulic cylinder or generator. At least two fins are linked to each float
in a manner that produces opposite forces on the float while a wave induced current is
present. The net force of the fins acting on the float is null but they induce a moment that
acts to turn the float in the water in an angular displacement. This arrangement has the
advantage that in this case the waves creates a higher mode exciting force/moment which
is more effective to produce energy from the vibrating float chain structure since higher
angular displacements are present.
In another preferred embodiment an omnidirectional turbine (for example us1697574 by
Savonius) is situated immersed in the water close to the surface with its axis of rotation
horizontal and perpendicular to the direction of the waves
The cycloid like currents turn the turbine in one single direction .
The turbine is held by a fix or floating structure that has a mooring system.
In another preferred embodiment the said omnidirectinal turbine has vanes that deform
under the pressure of the water currents so as to increase its wind direction projected
cross section while moving with the current and reducing it while moving against the
currents.the deformation can be achieved by using elastic material deformation and /or
making the vane from a plurality of articulated segments. This arrangement increases the
power and efficiency of the turbine

In another preferred embodiment one flat extractor float positioned vertically in the
water is allowed to move essentially in parallel to and a way from another reflector float.
The reflector float which is stiffly linked to, or part of the massive float, reflect a major
part of the wave energy which comes its way. A wave arriving to the extractor float is
partially reflected back. A part is extracted and a part is transmitted towards the reflector.
In some situations the reflected energy from the reflector in conjunction with the
transmitted energy from the extractor form a standing wave between these two floats.
This apparatus can be tuned according to wave length to optimize efficiency. The tuning
is effected by fixing different lengths between the extractor and reflector float. The
preferred optimal length is approximately quarter wave length. The length is controlled
by a control unit which receives data from a resolver that indicates the actual length and
from accelerometers which indicate the wave power spectrum and wave direction by
performing DSP analysis on the accelerometers signals. The control unit controls the
length of a servo mechanism which is interconnected in series with the generator between
the extractor and reflector float. The generator can also have a dual roll as a generator and
a length fixer. The power for elongating and shortening the length the fixer is preferably
the wave oscillating forces while the controller controls the resistance to movement of the
fixer in time and/or direction.
Preferably the fixer element is a hydraulic cylinder and its resistance is controlled by
valves.
In another preferred embodiment the extractor float is positioned at the anti node of the
standing wave preferably at about half a wave length from the reflector and the float is
allowed to move vertically to extract power.
In another preferred embodiment the extractor element is an omnidirectional turbine.