Evaluation of the Double Snap-Through Mechanism on the Wave Energy Converter’s Performance (original) (raw)

Lower efficiencies induce higher energy costs and pose a barrier to wave energy devices’ commercial applications. Therefore, the efficiency enhancement of wave energy converters has received much attention in recent decades. The reported research presents the double snap-through mechanism applied to a hemispheric point absorber type wave energy converter (WEC) to improve the energy absorption performance. The double snap-through mechanism comprises four oblique springs mounted in an X-configuration. This provides the WEC with different dynamic stability behaviors depending on the particular geometric and physical parameters employed. The efficiency of these different WEC behaviors (linear, bistable, and tristable) was initially evaluated under the action of regular waves. The results for bistable or tristable responses indicated significant improvements in the WEC’s energy capture efficiency. Furthermore, the WEC frequency bandwidth was shown to be significantly enlarged when the tr...