Wave energy generation device and method of tensioned integral series-parallel hybrid mechanism

Abstract

This invention belongs to the field of marine energy utilization technology, specifically relating to a wave energy generation device and method using a tensioned integral series-parallel hybrid mechanism. The power generation device includes at least two layers of vertically arranged oscillating floats and multiple linear generators disposed between the oscillating floats, thus forming a parallel power generation mechanism. There are at least three linear generators, each connected to an oscillating float at both ends via ball joints. The oscillating floats move with the waves, thereby driving the movement of the linear generator's rotor. The linear generators generate electricity under the influence of the oscillating floats. This invention connects the linear generators to the oscillating floats via ball joints, allowing unrestricted relative movement between the two oscillating floats. This fully utilizes waves from all directions, thereby driving the linear generators to generate electricity, improving wave utilization, and thus increasing power generation.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application belongs to the technical field of ocean energy utilization, and particularly relates to a wave energy power generation device and method of a tensegrity series-parallel hybrid mechanism. BACKGROUND

[0002] The storage of non-renewable energy such as fossil fuels is increasingly tight, and people's demand for energy is growing, so wave energy power generation as a kind of renewable energy has gradually become a research hotspot for scholars. The massive use of fossil fuels has led to the massive emission of greenhouse gases, global temperature rise, and frequent extreme weather. A renewable and clean energy source is needed to supplement the gap in energy consumption. The southeast coast of China has a long coastline, with internal rivers crisscrossing, and relatively abundant wave energy. It is of great significance to study wave energy power generation. There are various wave energy power generation devices, but the way of utilizing waves is relatively single, and various forms of waves cannot be fully utilized. The wave energy power generation device using an oscillating buoy is a relatively popular power generation method, which mainly relies on the up-and-down movement of the oscillating buoy in the wave to collect wave energy, and then uses it for power generation. The existing wave energy power generation device usually sets a hydraulic cylinder on the oscillating buoy, and the oscillating buoy moves in the wave to drive the hydraulic cylinder to extend and retract, and the hydraulic cylinder drives the hydraulic motor set on the hydraulic oil circuit to move, and the hydraulic motor drives the generator to move to generate electricity. This method needs to go through three stages of energy conversion, the first stage is to convert wave energy into mechanical energy of the oscillating buoy, the second stage is to convert mechanical energy into hydraulic energy of the hydraulic oil through the hydraulic cylinder, and the last stage is to convert hydraulic energy into electrical energy through the generator. The number of energy conversion is large, which makes the overall energy conversion efficiency low.

[0003] Chinese document CN202110774086.3 proposes a parallel direct drive type power generation device and its testing device, which includes a moving platform (oscillating buoy), a fixed platform, and a straight line power generation branch chain set between the moving platform and the fixed platform. The straight line power generation branch chain has at least three groups. With the impact of the wave, the moving platform receives the impact force from different directions and transmits it to one end of the straight line power generation branch chain connected thereto, and drives the straight line power generation branch chain to generate electricity. In this technical solution, the mechanical energy of the moving platform is converted into electrical energy through the straight line power generation branch chain, reducing the intermediate hydraulic energy conversion and improving the energy conversion efficiency. However, the universal mechanism between the straight line power generation branch chain and the moving platform is a cross head structure. This universal mechanism can only rotate in two directions, which has too many constraints and limits the movement direction of the moving platform, so that the moving platform can only move with a few degrees of freedom. The direction of the wave is 360°, so that the moving platform cannot fully utilize the wave energy of the wave for power generation, reducing the utilization rate of wave energy and the power generation capacity. SUMMARY

[0004] The application aims to provide a wave energy power generation device and method of a tensegrity series-parallel hybrid mechanism to solve the problem of low wave energy absorption efficiency caused by small freedom of the existing wave energy power generation device.

[0005] To achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the technical scheme of the application is as follows: a wave energy power generation device of a tensegrity series-parallel hybrid mechanism, comprising at least two layers of oscillating floats arranged in an upper-lower mode, and a plurality of linear generators arranged between the oscillating floats, thereby forming a parallel type power generation mechanism, the linear generators are at least three, the two ends of the linear generators are connected with the oscillating floats through spherical hinges, the oscillating floats are used to move with waves to drive the movement of the movers of the linear generators, and the linear generators are used to generate power under the driving of the oscillating floats.

[0006] The two ends of the linear generators are connected with the oscillating floats through spherical hinges, the relative movement between the two oscillating floats is not limited, the waves in each direction are fully utilized to drive the linear generators to generate power, the utilization rate of the waves is improved, and thus the power generation capacity is increased.

[0007] In an embodiment, the oscillating floats have three layers, and at least three linear generators are arranged between the oscillating floats of adjacent layers, thereby forming a series-parallel hybrid power generation mechanism.

[0008] In an embodiment, elastic members are further arranged between the oscillating floats, the two ends of each elastic member are connected with an oscillating float, and the two ends of each elastic member are arranged between adjacent linear generators to make the extension direction of at least one elastic member between the adjacent linear generators form a certain angle with the direction of the linear generator.

[0009] In an embodiment, one elastic member is arranged between each pair of adjacent linear generators, and the elastic members are arranged in a cross mode with the linear generators.

[0010] In an embodiment, the two ends of each elastic member are connected with the oscillating floats through spherical hinges.

[0011] In an embodiment, the oscillating floats are circular, and the linear generators are uniformly arranged along the circumference of the oscillating floats.

[0012] In an embodiment, one of the layers of oscillating floats is provided with an anchoring device.

[0013] In an embodiment, the anchoring device is at least one anchor chain, one end of the anchor chain is connected with the bottom of the oscillating float, and the other end of the anchor chain is used to be connected with a fixing device to fix the oscillating float.

[0014] In an embodiment, the oscillating float located at the top layer is provided with an air bag, and the air bag is used to extract or inject air to adjust the depth of the oscillating float in water.

[0015] The application also provides a power generation method of the wave energy power generation device based on the above-mentioned tension integral series-parallel hybrid mechanism, the wave energy power generation device is placed in water, at least one of heave, surge, sway, pitch, roll and roll of the oscillating float is caused by waves, the oscillating float drives the mover of the linear generator to move linearly to generate electricity; when the waves come, the elastic member is deformed under the action of the waves to absorb a certain amount of wave energy, at this time, the linear generator moves under the action of the waves to generate electricity, when the waves pass, the elastic member releases the stored energy to drive the mover of the linear generator to move to generate electricity.

[0016] The application has the following beneficial effects:

[0017] 1. The connection between the linear generator and the oscillating float adopts a spherical hinge, when static, the whole power generation device is in a self-balancing state and has a certain pre-stress; under water, the device can realize the translation and rotation of six degrees of freedom in space to drive the linear generator to generate electricity, and the utilization rate of the waves is high.

[0018] 2. A plurality of linear generators are arranged between the two layers of oscillating floats, and the two ends of each linear generator can form relative motion with the oscillating float in multiple directions, thereby forming a tension integral parallel mechanism, and the oscillating float moves with the waves to make the linear generator extend and retract to generate electricity.

[0019] 3. Three layers of oscillating floats are arranged, and five linear generators are arranged between each layer of oscillating floats, thereby forming a series-parallel hybrid power generation device, and the power generation capacity is increased.

[0020] 4. The elastic member is further arranged between the two layers of oscillating floats, when encountering large waves or typhoons, the elastic member can absorb the energy of the waves in advance, limit the movement stroke of the oscillating float, avoid damage to the whole device caused by large waves or typhoons, and make the device can cope with various uncertain extreme weather in rivers, lakes and seas, and has a certain self-protection property.

[0021] 5. After the elastic member absorbs energy due to large waves, the energy is released after the waves pass, thereby driving the linear generator to generate electricity, and the utilization rate of the waves can be further increased.

[0022] 6. The connection spherical hinge between the elastic member or the linear generator and the oscillating float has a certain friction in the use process, and after long-time use, the spherical hinge is worn to cause a gap between the moving parts in the spherical hinge, and the elastic member can compensate for the gap and improve the movement accuracy of the related moving parts. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0023] Figure 1 is a structural schematic diagram of one embodiment of the application;

[0024] Figure 2 is Figure 1a local enlarged view of A;

[0025] Wherein: 1 oscillating float, 2 linear generator, 3 spherical hinge, 4 elastic member, 5 anchor chain. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] To further illustrate the embodiments, the present application provides accompanying drawings. These drawings are part of the disclosure of the present application, which mainly serves to illustrate the embodiments, and can be explained in conjunction with the relevant description of the specification to understand the operating principle of the embodiments. With reference to these contents, those skilled in the art should understand other possible implementations and advantages of the present application. The components in the drawings are not drawn to scale, and similar component symbols are generally used to represent similar components.

[0027] Referring to Figures 1-2 As shown, as an embodiment of the present application, a wave energy power generation device of tensegrity series-parallel hybrid mechanism is provided, which comprises at least two layers of oscillating floats 1 arranged in upper and lower, and a plurality of linear generators 2 arranged between the oscillating floats, thereby forming a parallel type power generation mechanism. The linear generators 2 are at least three, and the three linear generators 2 can maintain the relative stability of the oscillating floats 1 and make the movement of the oscillating floats 1 controllable. A plurality of linear generators 2 are arranged between the two layers of oscillating floats 1, and the two ends of each linear generator 2 can form relative motion with the oscillating floats 1 in multiple directions, thereby forming a tensegrity parallel mechanism. The two ends of the linear generator 2 are connected with the oscillating float 1 through the spherical hinge 3. The oscillating float 1 is used to move with the wave to drive the mover of the linear generator 2 to move, and the linear generator 2 is used to generate electricity under the driving of the oscillating float. The two ends of the linear generator 2 are connected with the oscillating float 1 through the spherical hinge 3, and the relative motion between the two oscillating floats 1 is not limited, so as to fully utilize the waves in each direction to drive the linear generator 2 to generate electricity, thereby increasing the utilization rate of the waves and increasing the power generation capacity.

[0028] In order to further increase the power generation capacity, three layers of oscillating floats 1 arranged in upper and lower can be provided, and at least three linear generators 2 are arranged between the oscillating floats 1 of adjacent layers, thereby forming a series-parallel hybrid power generation mechanism. The linear generators 2 arranged between the upper layer and the middle layer and the linear generators 2 arranged between the middle layer and the lower layer are independent of each other, so the number of linear generators 2 between the oscillating floats 1 of different layers can be the same or different, as long as the number of linear generators 2 between the oscillating floats 1 of adjacent layers is greater than three. In an embodiment, five linear generators 2 are arranged between the oscillating floats 1 of adjacent layers.

[0029] The elastic member 4 is arranged between the adjacent oscillating floaters 1 and between the adjacent linear generators 2. The elastic member 4 is arranged between the adjacent linear generators 2, and the two ends of the elastic member 4 are located between the adjacent linear generators 2, so that the extension direction of the elastic member 4 arranged between the adjacent linear generators 2 forms a certain angle with the direction of the linear generator 2. In an embodiment, the elastic member 4 is arranged between the adjacent linear generators 2, that is, the elastic member 4 corresponds to the linear generator 2, and the connection points of the two ends of the elastic member 4 with the oscillating floater 1 are located near the connection points of the linear generator 2 with the oscillating floater 1, so that the angle between the elastic member 4 and the linear generator 2 is larger, and the elastic member 4 can bear greater deformation and reduce the influence on the linear generator 2. In other embodiments, in addition to the elastic member 4 arranged between the adjacent linear generators 2 as described in the foregoing embodiment, an elastic member parallel to each linear generator 2 is arranged on one side of each linear generator 2, and the motion trajectories of the elastic members 4 do not interfere with each other.

[0030] When the waves come, the linear generators 2 and the elastic members 4 move with the oscillating floater 1, the linear generators 2 absorb part of the wave energy for power generation, and the elastic members 4 deform to absorb another part of the wave energy; when the waves change direction or end, the elastic members 4 release the energy absorbed previously to make the linear generators move reversely to generate power, so that the wave energy is fully utilized. When the power generation device encounters large waves or typhoon and other bad weather in water, the elastic members 4 absorb part of the energy to protect the power generation device from being damaged.

[0031] The connection ball hinge between the elastic member or the linear generator and the oscillating floater has certain friction in use, and after long-time use, the ball hinge is worn to cause a gap between the moving parts in the ball hinge. The elastic member can compensate for the gap and improve the motion accuracy of the related moving parts.

[0032] In an embodiment, in order to make the elastic member 4 better absorb the wave energy, the constraint on the elastic member 4 should be reduced, so that the two ends of the elastic member 4 are connected with the oscillating floater 1 through the ball hinge 3. The ball hinge 3 between the elastic member 4 and the oscillating floater 1 can reduce the constraint of the elastic member 4 on the oscillating floater 1, so that the oscillating floater 1 fully moves with the wave energy in each direction. In other embodiments, the connection between the elastic member 4 and the oscillating floater 1 is fixed connection, such as riveting or threaded connection.

[0033] In an embodiment, the elastic member is a spring. In other embodiments, the elastic member can also be a spring rope.

[0034] Since the waves can come from any direction, the oscillating float 1 is set to be circular, so that the oscillating float 1 can move against the waves in all directions, and the linear generators 2 are evenly arranged along the circumference of the oscillating float 1. In other embodiments, the oscillating float 1 can also be triangular, rectangular or other shapes, and the linear generators 2 are evenly arranged along the outer contour of the oscillating float 1.

[0035] In order to control the position of the power generation device in the water, the power generation device should be connected to a fixed position such as a ship body or the bottom of the water through an anchoring device. In an embodiment, the anchoring device is arranged at the bottom of the bottommost oscillating float 1. In other embodiments, the anchoring device can also be connected to any other layer of the oscillating float 1, so that one layer of the oscillating float 1 is fixed, and the other two layers of the oscillating float 1 move with the waves. When the oscillating float 1 at the topmost layer is connected to the anchoring device, the top of the oscillating float 1 is connected to the anchoring device, so that the entire power generation device appears to be hanging down from a high place. When the oscillating float 1 at the middle layer is connected to the anchoring device, the anchoring device can extend from the side of the oscillating float 1 to the oscillating float 1. At this time, the size of the middle layer of the oscillating float 1 connected to the anchoring device should be larger than that of the other layers of the oscillating float 1, so as to avoid the anchoring device contacting the other layers of the oscillating float 1 and affecting the movement of the oscillating float 1.

[0036] In an embodiment, the anchoring device is at least one anchor chain 5, one end of the anchor chain 5 is connected to the bottom of the oscillating float 1, and the other end of the anchor chain 5 is used to connect to a fixed device such as a ship body or a sea operation platform or the bottom of the water, so as to fix the oscillating float 1. One anchor chain 5 can connect the power generation device to the fixed device, and three anchor chains 5 are preferred in this embodiment, which can fix the power generation device in the water. In other embodiments, the anchoring device is a rod fixedly connected to the fixed device.

[0037] In order to make the oscillating float 1 sink to a certain depth in the water, the buoyancy of the oscillating float 1 should be controllable. In an embodiment, the oscillating float 1 arranged at the upper layer is provided with an air bag (not shown in the figure) fixed relative to the oscillating float 1, and the air bag is used to extract or inject air to adjust the depth of the oscillating float in the water. In this embodiment, the float arranged at the middle layer can also be provided with an air bag, and by controlling the air content in the two air bags at the upper and middle layers, the buoyancy of the oscillating floats at different layers in the water can be adjusted. In other embodiments, the oscillating float 1 is made of hollow plastic parts, and by filling different amounts of water in the oscillating float 1, the depth of the oscillating float 1 in the water can be controlled.

[0038] The application also has a control box, which is used to store the electric energy generated by the linear generator 2 in a storage battery or supply to an electric device, and can control the movement resistance between the mover and the stator in the linear generator 2 according to the size of the wave, so as to dynamically adjust the power generation of the device. The control of the control box is not the protection content of the application, and will not be described here.

[0039] Since the application works in water, the electronic devices such as the linear generator, the control box and the storage battery should be waterproofed, and the specific waterproofing method is the prior art, which will not be described here.

[0040] The application also provides a power generation method of the wave energy power generation device based on the above tensioned whole series-parallel hybrid mechanism. The device is placed in water, and the oscillating float moves at least one of the following motions: heave, surge, sway, roll, pitch and yaw, and drives the mover of the linear generator to move linearly to generate electricity. When the wave comes, the elastic member deforms under the action of the wave to absorb a certain amount of wave energy, and at this time, the linear generator moves under the action of the wave to generate electricity. When the wave passes, the elastic member releases the stored energy to drive the mover of the linear generator to move to generate electricity.

[0041] Since the connection between the linear motor 2 and the oscillating float 1 is a spherical hinge connection, each oscillating float has 6 degrees of freedom of motion, i.e. heave, surge, sway, roll, pitch and yaw, and the whole device has 12 degrees of freedom, so that the energy in any motion direction of the float can be collected, and the wave energy can be collected to the maximum extent.

[0042] The working process of the embodiment is as follows: the application is placed in water, and the device is fixed by the anchoring device, the air content of the air bag or the water amount in the oscillating float 1 is adjusted to make the device located at a suitable water depth. The oscillating float 1 converts the wave energy into mechanical energy with the wave motion, the motion of the oscillating float 1 drives the mover of the linear generator 2 to move to make the linear generator generate electricity, so as to convert the mechanical energy into electric energy, and the electric energy is generated through two-stage energy conversion. When the wave is large and exceeds the bearing limit of the device, the linear generator 2 utilizes a part of the wave energy and generates electricity at the maximum power, and the elastic member 4 deforms to absorb another part of the wave energy which cannot be absorbed by the linear generator 2. When the wave direction changes or the large wave ends, the elastic member 4 releases the previously absorbed energy to drive the mover of the linear generator 4 to move reversely to generate electricity, so as to improve the utilization rate of the wave energy.

[0043] The number of layers of the oscillating float 1 of the application is not limited to three, and three layers can form a series-parallel hybrid mechanism, and more than three layers are also feasible, for example, four or five layers. The number of layers of the oscillating float 1 is increased, and the structure of the oscillating float 1 and the structure between adjacent layers of the oscillating float 1 are the same as the above disclosed content, which will not be described here.

[0044] While the application has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the application as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A wave energy power generation device of tensegrity series-parallel hybrid mechanism, characterized in that, The parallel type power generation mechanism comprises at least three layers of oscillating buoys arranged in a top-down manner, and a plurality of linear generators arranged between the oscillating buoys, so as to form a parallel type power generation mechanism, wherein the linear generators are at least three, the linear generators are connected with the oscillating buoys through spherical hinges at two ends, the oscillating buoys are used to move with waves so as to drive the movers of the linear generators to move, and the linear generators are used to generate power under the driving of the oscillating buoys; The elastic members are arranged between the oscillating buoys, and two ends of each elastic member are connected with two oscillating buoys respectively; One of the oscillating buoys is provided with an anchoring device, and the anchoring device is connected with the oscillating buoy at the bottom layer; The two ends of each elastic member are arranged between adjacent linear generators, so that the extension direction of at least one elastic member between the adjacent linear generators forms a certain angle with the direction of the linear generator; One elastic member is arranged between each pair of adjacent linear generators, and the elastic members are arranged in a cross manner with the linear generators, one end of the elastic member is arranged near the connection point between one of the linear generators and the oscillating buoy, and the other end of the elastic member is arranged near the connection point between the other of the linear generators and the oscillating buoy; The two ends of the elastic member are connected with the oscillating buoys through spherical hinges, and the oscillating buoys are circular, and the linear generators are uniformly arranged along the circumference of the oscillating buoys; The anchoring device is three anchor chains, one end of each anchor chain is connected with the bottom of the oscillating buoy, and the other end of each anchor chain is used to be connected with a fixing device, the fixing device is a ship body or a sea operation platform, and the three anchor chains are connected with the bottom ends of the oscillating buoys at the bottom layer at different positions.

2. The wave energy power plant of claim 1, wherein, The oscillating buoy at the top layer is provided with an air bag, and the air bag is used to extract or inject air to adjust the depth of the oscillating buoy in water.

3. A power generation method of a wave energy device of a hybrid serial-parallel mechanism of tensegrity, the power generation device is the power generation device in claim 1 or 2, the elastic members are arranged between the oscillating buoys, and two ends of each elastic member are connected with two oscillating buoys respectively, and the two ends of each elastic member are arranged between adjacent linear generators, so that the extension direction of the elastic member forms a certain angle with the direction of the linear generator; The power generation device is placed in water, at least one of the heave, surge, sway, pitch, roll and roll of the oscillating buoys is moved with waves, the oscillating buoys drive the movers of the linear generators to move linearly, so as to generate power; When the waves come, the elastic members are deformed under the action of the waves to absorb a certain amount of wave energy, at this time, the linear generators move under the action of the waves to generate power, when the waves pass, the elastic members release the stored energy to drive the movers of the linear generators to move to generate power.

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