"Optimal Control of Nonlinear Wave Energy Converters In Heave for Maxim" by Kevin Nelson

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Open Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Advisor 1

Gordon Parker

Committee Member 1

Wayne Weaver

Committee Member 2

Guy Meadows

Abstract

The marine renewable energy community is interested in maximizing the power generated by nonlinear wave energy converters. Optimal control methods provide a tool to achieve this aim and can also help to inform the buoy design. An energy-optimal control law for a class of non-linear buoy models is derived and is shown to be singular. The solution approach is illustrated using an hourglass-shaped buoy having a cubic, hydrostatic nonlinearity. The optimal control law is only valid on singular arcs, and a method to search for these arcs is presented. Two singular arcs are found for the hourglass buoy model and analyzed. Neither is likely optimal thus, finding the energy-optimal singular arc is left for future work.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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