RESONANT PNEUMATIC WAVE COMPRESSOR

摘要

There is provided a first wave energy converter, operating as a long attenuator, for extracting energy from sea waves comprising a floating flexible power hose, suction coupled to the wave surface. The power hose is buckled by an internal tensioned spinal cord into a resonant waveform that couples with the wave surface to extract energy from the incident waves. The spinal cord drives a skeleton reinforced diaphragm that pumps atmospheric air along the hose at the propagation velocity of waves. The air flow is unidirectional and the air pressure increases at every change of curvature along the flexible hose to produce compressed air. This compressed air is delivered by pipe to land where it can be converted to electricity or used as energy storage. There is provided a second wave energy converter, operating as a long attenuator, for extracting energy from sea waves comprising a floating flexible hose, suction coupled to the wave surface, that transfers energy to an internal buckled elastic spine, tuned to the wave frequency, which drives skeleton reinforced diaphragm seals that pump atmospheric air at the propagation velocity of waves. The air flow is unidirectional and the air pressure increases along the flexible hose to produce compressed air for delivery by pipe to land where it can be converted to electricity or used as energy storage.