Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Open Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Advisor 1

Wayne Weaver

Committee Member 1

Gordon Parker

Committee Member 2

Tania Demonte Gonzalez

Committee Member 3

Rush Robinett III

Abstract

There is abundant energy surging in the oceans across the globe. However, there have been technological challenges in extracting that energy for use. Wave energy converter (WEC) technology is being developed to find innovative ways to convert wave kinetic energy into electricity, but there are still efficiency obstacles that inhibit large-scale use. Focusing on heave-point absorber control theory, this thesis continues the work to improve the efficiency of WECs. This is done by leveraging a superposition of linear mass-spring-damper models to analyze a WEC under multi-frequency excitation and applying proportional-derivative gains to each linear model. However, to analyze this system, reactive power is borrowed from electrical engineering contexts and generalized for use in marine energy. The theoretical work was tested experimentally, and the results showed positive qualitative correlations, despite inconsistent quantitative comparisons. There remains further work to apply the feedback strategy and reactive power theories to a WEC, and to develop improvements to WEC efficiency, but this work provides support for this approach and the continuation of its investigation.

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