Hydraulic wave energy converter

Abstract

A hydraulic wave energy converter, for converting wave energy into high-pressure water energy, includes a rectangular upper floating body (1) floating on water surface, a cylindrical housing-shaped lower floating body (2) under water, a first cable (3), a second cable (4), a hanging rod (5), a ball hinged hook (6), a sea floor anchor pile (7), and other mooring facilities. A plurality of water hydraulic cylinders (8) are vertically fixed at two wider sides of the upper floating body (1) and are reliably connected with the lower floating body (2) through piston heads (27), piston rods (28) and piston rod seats (29). The hydraulic wave energy converter can convert the vertical component and the horizontal component of the wave motion into high-pressure water energy for impacting a hydraulic generator set to generate power, and is lower in cost, simple in maintenance and high in wave energy conversion efficiency.

Claims

1. A hydraulic wave energy converter, comprising: an upper floating body (1), a lower floating body (2), a first cable (3), a second cable (4), a hanging rod (5), a ball hinged hook (6) and a sea floor anchor pile (7), wherein the upper floating body (1) is a rectangular hollow concrete building, at least two hydraulic cylinders (8) are respectively vertically and equidistantly fixed to two wider sides of the upper floating body (1), a flared joint (9) is fixed to an upper end of every hydraulic cylinder (8), a flared joint (10) is fixed to a lower end of every hydraulic cylinder (8), a cylinder cover (11) is located at a wider end of the flared joint (9), a water outlet (12) is provided at a middle of the cylinder cover (11), two water inlets (13) are respectively provided at two sides of the cylinder cover (11), a cylinder cover (14) is located at a wider end of the flared joint (10), a bearing (15) is mounted in a circular hole at a middle of the cylinder cover (14), a water outlet (16) and two water inlets (17) are respectively provided at a periphery of the cylinder cover (14), the water outlet (12) is connected with a water discharging valve chamber (18) and a water discharging pipe (19), the water outlet (16) is connected with the water discharging valve chamber (18) and a water discharging pipe (20), both the two water inlets (13) and the two water inlets (17) are connected with a water inflowing valve chamber (21) and a water inflowing pipe (22), a water discharging valve (23) and a spring (24) are located within the water discharging valve chamber (18), a water inflowing valve (25) and a spring (26) are located within the water inflowing valve chamber (21), a piston head (27) slidably fitted with a cylinder wall and a piston rod (28) connected with the piston head (27) are located within every hydraulic cylinder (8), a proportion of the upper floating body (1) with every hydraulic cylinder (8) is 0.5, the lower floating body (2) is a sealing cylindrical housing, a piston rod seat (29) is located at an upper portion of the lower floating body (2), an amount and a position of the piston rod seat (29) are corresponding to those of the piston rod (28), a first pair of earrings (30) and (31) are located at one side of the lower floating body (2), a second pair of earrings (32) and (33) are located at the other side of the lower floating body (2), the first cable (3) is fixedly connected with the first pair of earrings (30) and (31) via the hanging rod (5), the second cable (4) is fixedly connected with the second pair of earrings (32) and (33) via the hanging rod (5), the hanging rod (5) is connected with the sea floor anchor pile (7) via the ball hinged hook (6).

2. The hydraulic wave energy converter, as recited in claim 1, wherein every hydraulic cylinder (8) is made of seamless steel tube, and a cylinder sleeve made of titanium metal plate which is resistant from sea water corrosion, is located at an inner wall of the hydraulic cylinder (8).

3. The hydraulic wave energy converter, as recited in claim 1, wherein the first cable (3) and the second cable (4) are made of steel wires with high strength, or carbon fiber or aromatic polyamide fiber with higher strength and corrosion resistance, an armored protective layer is coated on the carbon fiber cable or aromatic polyamide fiber cables.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a front view of a hydraulic wave energy converter of the present invention.

(2) FIG. 2 is A-directional view of the front view of a hydraulic wave energy converter of the present invention.

(3) FIG. 3 is a forward sectional view of a hydraulic cylinder 8.

(4) FIG. 4 is a forward sectional view of a water discharging valve chamber 18.

(5) FIG. 5 is a B-directional view of the forward sectional view of the water discharging valve chamber 18.

(6) FIG. 6 is a forward sectional view of a water inflowing valve chamber 21.

(7) FIG. 7 is a C-directional view of the forward sectional view of the water inflowing valve chamber 21.

(8) FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing that swaying waves do work.

(9) FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing that the gravity does work.

(10) In the drawings, 1upper floating body; 2lower floating body; 3first cable; 4second cable; 5hanging rod; 6ball hinged hook; 7sea floor anchor pile; 8hydraulic cylinder; 9, 10flared joint; 11cylinder cover; 12water outlet; 13water inlet; 14cylinder cover; 15bearing; 16water outlet; 17water inlet; 18water discharging valve chamber; 19, 20water discharging pipe; 21water inflowing valve chamber; 22water inflowing pipe; 23water inflowing valve; 24spring; 25water inflowing valve; 26spring; 27pistion head; 28piston rod; 29pistion rod seat; 30, 31first pair of earrings; 32, 33second pair of earrings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

(11) A hydraulic wave energy converter is disclosed. A height of an upper floating body is 3 M, a thickness thereof is 4 M, and a width thereof is 12 M. The upper floating body is a hollow steel reinforced concrete building. Three cylindrical hydraulic cylinders are vertically mounted at two sides of the upper floating body. A height of every hydraulic cylinder is 3 M, and an inner diameter thereof is 300 mm. The hydraulic cylinder is made of seamless steel tube with a thickness of 5 mm. A titanium metal sleeve, with a thickness of 1 mm, is attached to an inner wall of the hydraulic cylinder. A total weight of the upper floating body and the hydraulic cylinders is 72 T, and a proportion thereof is 0.5. Six hydraulic cylinders are connected with the lower floating body by piston rods, each of which having a diameter of 40 mm. The lower floating body is made of steel plate with a thickness of 4 mm, a diameter of 3.2 M and a length of 12 M. Six piston rod seats whose positions are corresponding to piston rods. Four earrings are respectively located at two sides of the lower floating body for fixing the cables. A total weight of the lower floating body is 10 T to providing a buoyancy of 86.5 T.

(12) In the dock, the preset upper floating body and the lower floating body are assembled together, sea water is injected into the lower floating body for allowing a proportion thereof to be slightly larger than one, and then the assembly of the upper floating body and the lower floating body is hauled by tugs to the pre-empty sea; and then the lower floating body is connected with the pre-buried sea floor anchor pile through anchored cables made of aromatic polyamide fibers; and then sea water within the lower floating body is drawn out for recovering the buoyancy of the lower floating body, the length of the cables is adjusted to locate the pistons at the upper end of the cylinder body of the hydraulic cylinders, namely, near the upper cover, such that the action distance is the longest, and lengths of the cables at two sides of the hanging rod are same, so as to ensure that the upper floating body and the lower floating body are at the horizontal position. At this time, the upper floating body semi-floats on the sea surface, the lower portion of the upper floating body nearby is horizontally anchored with the lower floating body. Accordingly, the hydraulic wave energy converter completes the installation. The maximum effective wave height of the converter is 3 M, which is equivalent to the actual wave height 4.2 M. While the effective wave height is 1.5 M and the wave period is 6 S, the maximum pressure the outputted high-pressure water is 1.7 MPa and an average output power is 800 KW.