Wave Engine Pressure Regulation With Turbine Buffering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hydrodynamic pumps face challenges in maintaining stable net pressure across their water turbines due to fluctuations in inlet and back pressures, leading to inefficiencies, increased complexity, and higher costs, as they struggle to adjust gas pocket pressure passively without moving parts.
Innovation Solution
Incorporation of an effluent buffer chamber to stabilize short-term pressure swings and a reservoir pressure-stabilizing trompe to continuously adjust air pocket pressure, maintaining optimal water flow rates into and out of the water reservoir, thereby stabilizing net pressure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If the hydrodynamic pump uses a water turbine to extract energy from water flow, then electrical power is generated, but the net pressure across the turbine varies stochastically due to inlet pressure variations from air pocket oscillation and back pressure variations from effluent port depth changes
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into separate functional components: an air pocket for pressure regulation, a water reservoir for flow stabilization, and an effluent buffer chamber for decoupling turbine back pressure from wave-induced depth variations. This segmentation allows each component to independently manage specific pressure variations, collectively stabilizing the net pressure across the turbine while maintaining power generation.
2Power
If the air pocket pressure is increased to raise water inlet pressure to the turbine, then power generation improves, but the inlet pressure becomes more variable and unstable
Solution Approach 1:
The air pocket acts as a compressible cushion that anticipates and absorbs pressure fluctuations before they reach the turbine. By maintaining a reservoir of pressurized air, the system can compensate for incoming pressure variations, smoothing the inlet pressure to the turbine while preserving the elevated pressure levels needed for effective power generation.
3Power
If the effluent port depth is increased to raise back pressure and improve net pressure, then power generation improves, but the back pressure becomes more variable due to wave-induced bobbing
Solution Approach 1:
The effluent buffer chamber serves as an intermediary between the turbine and the external water environment. It decouples the turbine's back pressure from the wave-induced depth variations by providing a buffered interface, allowing the system to maintain stable back pressure for power generation while isolating the turbine from the instability of wave motion.
4Stability of the object's composition
If mechanical components are added to actively adjust air pocket pressure, then pressure control improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The air pocket, water reservoir, and effluent buffer chamber form a self-regulating system that automatically adjusts pressures in response to wave conditions without requiring external control mechanisms. The system uses its own operational dynamics—air compression, water flow, and pressure equilibrium—to maintain stable net pressure across the turbine, eliminating the need for additional mechanical actuators, sensors, or control systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Stabilizes net pressure, reducing mechanical fatigue and electronic complexity, enhancing efficiency and reliability, and lowering operational costs by passively adjusting air pocket pressure to match varying wave conditions.
Implementation Method 1
a reservoir pressure-stabilizing trompe operatively connected to the air pocket and configured to adjust a pressure of the air pocket
Implementation Method 2
converts a portion of that potential energy into electrical power as the water flows out of the reservoir via, and/or through, a water turbine
Implementation Method 3
Incorporation of an effluent buffer chamber to stabilize short-term pressure swings
Data Source
AI summary
A pressure-regulating buoyant hydrodynamic pump is disclosed that floats adjacent to a surface of a body of water over which waves tend to pass. In response to wave-induced movements of the device, water is drawn into a mouth at a lower end of an injection tube, and water is ejected from a mouth at an upper end of the injection tube. The ejected water is deposited into an interior of the hollow buoy thereby augmenting a water reservoir therein. And water flows from the water reservoir to and through a water turbine, thereby energizing a generator, power electronics, and an electrical load. A novel water-turbine effluent buffering tube, or chamber, smooths pressure variations felt across the water turbine.