Inertial hydrodynamic pump and wave engine

Abstract

Waves move slowly and have long oscillation periods (8–20 seconds), making it desirable yet difficult to extract energy efficiently from ocean waves. Herein described is a buoyant hydrodynamic system that can float on a surface of a body of water over which waves tend to pass. The system incorporates an open-bottomed tube with a constriction. The tube partially encloses a substantial volume of water with which the tube’s constriction interacts, creating and / or amplifying oscillations therein in response to wave action. Wave-driven oscillations result in periodic upward ejections of portions of the water inside the tube that can be collected in a reservoir that is at least partially positioned above the mean water level of the body of water, or pressurized by compressed air or gas, or both. Water within such a reservoir may return to the body of water via a turbine, thereby generating electrical power (making the system a wave engine).

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