Wave-Driven Hydrodynamic Pump With Buffered Turbine Pressure
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
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
Incorporating an effluent buffer chamber to stabilize transient swings in net pressure 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 the 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 generation is achieved, but the net pressure across the turbine becomes unstable due to variations in inlet pressure from air pocket oscillation and back pressure from effluent port depth changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an effluent buffer chamber as an intermediary component between the water turbine and the discharge environment. This buffer chamber absorbs pressure fluctuations and stabilizes the back pressure experienced by the water turbine, thereby maintaining more stable net pressure across the turbine while continuing to generate electrical power.
Solution Approach 2:
The air pocket serves a dual function: it provides the necessary pressure differential for water injection while also acting as a compressible cushion that naturally absorbs pressure oscillations. The system utilizes the inherent compressibility of the trapped air to self-regulate pressure variations without requiring external control mechanisms.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the hydrodynamic pump operates across a broad range of wave conditions, then adaptability is improved, but the device complexity increases due to the need for turbines and generators capable of operating efficiently under varying pressures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic elements including a movable effluent port that adjusts its depth relative to wave conditions, and a compressible air pocket that adapts its volume and pressure in response to varying wave energy. These dynamic features enable the system to maintain efficient operation across different wave conditions without requiring multiple specialized turbine-generator configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes operating parameters naturally in response to wave conditions: the air pocket pressure varies with wave energy, the effluent port depth adjusts with wave motion, and the water flow rate through the turbine changes accordingly. These parameter changes allow the turbine-generator system to operate efficiently across a broad range of conditions without increasing mechanical complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the effluent port depth varies with wave motion, then the device can respond to wave conditions, but the back pressure on the water turbine becomes unstable
Solution Approach 1:
The effluent buffer chamber acts as a mediator between the variable-depth effluent port and the water turbine. It decouples the direct connection between port depth and turbine back pressure, allowing the port to move freely with waves while the buffer chamber maintains relatively stable back pressure on the turbine through its volume compensation capability.
4Productivity
If the air pocket pressure is increased to maintain water reservoir level, then water capture rate improves, but the inlet pressure to the water turbine becomes more variable
Solution Approach 1:
The effluent buffer chamber serves as a pressure-stabilizing intermediary that compensates for inlet pressure variations. Even when air pocket pressure fluctuations cause variable inlet pressure to the turbine, the buffer chamber maintains more stable back pressure, resulting in more stable net pressure and power output.
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
The solution stabilizes net pressure, reducing mechanical fatigue, electronic complexity, and operational costs while enhancing efficiency and reliability by passively adjusting air pocket pressure to match varying wave conditions.
Implementation Method 1
a pocket of air within an upper portion of the interior of the hollow buoy pushes a free surface of water within the injection tube to a depth below that of the surface of the body of water on which the hydrodynamic pump floats
Implementation Method 2
The water pressure to which a water turbine responds, and from which it extracts mechanical energy, can be thought of as a difference between the pressure of water flowing into the water turbine, i.e., the water turbine's 'inlet pressure,' and the pressure of water resisting the outflow of, and/or pushing back against, the water turbine's effluent
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.