Anaconda
The bulge wave sea energy converter
Francis J.
M.
Farley1
and R.
C.
T.
Rainey2
5 Nov 2006
Introduction
This note describes a completely new way of extracting energy from ocean waves, based on
bulge waves traveling along a distensible rubber...
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Anaconda
The bulge wave sea energy converter
Francis J.
M.
Farley1
and R.
C.
T.
Rainey2
5 Nov 2006
Introduction
This note describes a completely new way of extracting energy from ocean waves, based on
bulge waves traveling along a distensible rubber tube[1].
The tube, typically 7 m diameter
and 150 m long and filled with water, is oriented in the direction of wave travel.
The waves
excite a bulge in the tube which travels just in front of the wave rather like a surf-board,
picking up energy and increasing progressively in size.
The traveling bulge concentrates
the energy from the sea and at the end of the tube the energy can be extracted to drive
a turbine.
Calculations suggest that a tube of this size would pick up about 1 megawatt
average power from the Atlantic waves.
Figure 1.
Bulge wave launched by
hand; velocity about 3 m/s.
The system is very simple; just a rubber tube in the sea with some inlet valves admitting water and a turbine-generator at the bow.
The tube is soft
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