Modeling and Control of Wave Energy Converters

Abstract

Wave Power is a technology that was founded in the 70's, but which still not has reached full industrial recognition as a energy source. In this thesis there is a literature study on different concepts of Wave Energy Converters(WEC) which has been build in full scale, and there is a great variety in the concepts. There is a theory chapter where ocean waves theory, mass-spring-damper dynamics, hydrodynamics and maximum power capture are presented. The modeling work was done on a axisymmetric point absorber WEC, which can be said to have the greatest potential for energy absorption because it is small relative to the wavelength of the incident waves. To be able to simulate on the model, a control strategy must be included, and I have included PID control and Model Predictive Control as strategies to be able to capture maximum power with Phase Latching. I believe that Model Predictive Control will be the best choice for control system, although it is not as robust as PID control, but because of its predictive behavior. At last there is a chapter where further work and some concluding remarks are given.