  Rugbyman Member Username: Rugbyman Post Number: 373 Registered: 06-2005 |
Got to reading this and realized it sounded awfully familiar. Read on to the bottom and readers of the "Port Authority" thread will recognize the project. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ear th/energy/renewableenergy/3535 012/Ocean-currents-can-power-t he-world-say-scientists.html | ||
Warrenite84 Member Username: Warrenite84 Post Number: 441 Registered: 01-2007 |
Michigan ingenuity strikes again. Good news. | ||
Townonenorth Member Username: Townonenorth Post Number: 401 Registered: 10-2007 |
Author(s): Michael M. Bernitsas, Ph.D., Professor, Fellow ASME; Kamaldev Raghavan, Graduate Student, Ph.D. Candidate; Y. Ben-Simon, Graduate Student, N.A. Professional Degree; and E. M. H. Garcia, Graduate Student, Ph.D. Pre-Candidate Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, University of Michigan, 2600 Draper, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2145 Any device aiming to harness the abundant clean and renewable energy from ocean and other water resources must have high energy density, be unobtrusive, have low maintenance, be robust, meet life cycle cost targets, and have a 10–20 year life. The vortex induced vibration aquatic clean energy (VIVACE) converter—invented by Bernitsas and Raghavan, patent pending through the University of Michigan—satisfies those criteria. It converts ocean/river current hydrokinetic energy to a usable form of energy such as electricity using VIV successfully and efficiently for the first time. VIVACE is based on the idea of maximizing rather than spoiling vortex shedding and exploiting rather than suppressing VIV. It introduces optimal damping for energy conversion while maintaining VIV over a broad range of vortex shedding synchronization. VIV occurs over very broad ranges of Reynolds (Re) number. Only three transition regions suppress VIV. Thus, even from currents as slow as 0.25 m/s, VIVACE can extract energy with high power conversion ratio making ocean/river current energy a more accessible and economically viable resource. In this paper, the underlying concepts of the VIVACE converter are discussed. The designs of the physical model and laboratory prototype are presented. A mathematical model is developed, and design particulars for a wide range of application scales are calculated. Experimental measurements on the laboratory prototype are reported in the sequel paper and used here for preliminary benchmarking. ©2008 American Society of Mechanical Engineers History: Received 30 January 2007; revised 10 July 2007; published 16 September 2008 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.29 57913 |
