Analytical and computational modelling for wave energy systems: the example of oscillating wave surge converters

The development of new wave energy converters has shed light on a number of unanswered questions in fluid mechanics, but has also identified a number of new issues of importance for their future deployment. The main concerns relevant to the practical use of wave energy converters are sustainability, survivability, and maintainability. Of course, it is also necessary to maximize the capture per unit area of the structure as well as to minimize the cost. In this review, we consider some of the questions related to the topics of sustain-ability, survivability, and maintenance access, with respect to sea conditions, for generic wave energy converters with an emphasis on the oscillating wave surge converter. New analytical models that have been developed are a topic of par-ticular discussion. It is also shown how existing numerical models have been pushed to their limits to provide answers to open questions relating to the operation and characteristics of wave energy converters.     

Vibration absorption of parallel-coupled nonlinear energy sink under shock and harmonic excitations

Nonlinear energy sink(NES) can passively absorb broadband energy from primary oscillators. Proper multiple NESs connected in parallel exhibit superior performance to single-degree-of-freedom(SDOF) NESs. In this work, a linear coupling spring is installed between two parallel NESs so as to expand the application scope of such vibration absorbers. The vibration absorption of the parallel and parallel-coupled NESs and the system response induced by the coupling spring are studied. The results show that the responses of the system exhibit a significant difference when the heavier cubic oscillators in the NESs have lower stiffness and the lighter cubic oscillators have higher stiffness. Moreover, the efficiency of the parallel-coupled NES is higher for medium shocks but lower for small and large shocks than that of the parallel NESs. The parallel-coupled NES also shows superior performance for medium harmonic excitations until higher response branches are induced. The performance of the parallel-coupled NES and the SDOF NES is compared. It is found that, regardless of the chosen SDOF NES parameters, the performance of the parallel-coupled NES is similar or superior to that of the SDOF NES in the entire force range.     

A novel method for predicting the power outputs of wave energy converters

This paper focuses on realistically predicting the power outputs of wave energy converters operating in shallow water nonlinear waves. A heaving two-body point absorber is utilized as a specific calculation example, and the generated power of the point absorber has been predicted by using a novel method(a nonlinear simulation method) that incorporates a second order random wave model into a nonlinear dynamic filter. It is demonstrated that the second order random wave model in this article can be utilized to generate irregular waves with realistic crest–trough asymmetries, and consequently, more accurate generated power can be predicted by subsequently solving the nonlinear dynamic filter equation with the nonlinearly simulated second order waves as inputs. The research findings demonstrate that the novel nonlinear simulation method in this article can be utilized as a robust tool for ocean engineers in their design, analysis and optimization of wave energy converters.     

Hardware-in-the-loop simulation of wave energy converters based on dielectric elastomer generators

Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) are soft electrostatic generators based on low-cost electroactive polymer materials. These devices have attracted the attention of the marine energy community as a promising solution to implement economically viable wave energy converters (WECs). This paper introduces a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation framework for a class of WECs that combines the concept of the oscillating water columns (OWCs) with the DEGs. The proposed HIL system replicates in a laboratory environment the realistic operating conditions of an OWC/DEG plant, while drastically reducing the experimental burden compared to wave tank or sea tests. The HIL simulator is driven by a closed-loop real-time hydrodynamic model that is based on a novel coupling criterion which allows rendering a realistic dynamic response for a diversity of scenarios, including large scale DEG plants, whose dimensions and topologies are largely different from those available in the HIL setup. A case study is also introduced, which simulates the application of DEGs on an OWC plant installed in a mild real sea laboratory test-site. Comparisons with available real sea-test data demonstrated the ability of the HIL setup to effectively replicate a realistic operating scenario. The insights gathered on the promising performance of the analysed OWC/DEG systems pave the way to pursue further sea trials in the future.

     

Heteroclinic motion and energy transfer in coupled oscillator with nonlinear magnetic coupling

In this paper, we consider two coupled oscillators exhibiting both transient chaos and energy transfer from mechanical to electrical oscillators. Melnikov method is applied to these oscillators with linear damping and strongly nonlinear coupling terms in order to study the possibility of existence of chaos and transversal heteroclinic orbits and their control in a dynamical system. The energy transfer is studied using a qualitative measure of the system which can be obtained by computing the energy dissipated in it. At last, the numerical simulation is carried out for this system.     

A pair of exactly soluble non-linear oscillators

A pair of anharmonic oscillators which are related to the simple pendulum are treated analytically. Decomposing the potential function of the simple pendulum into two parts, a pair of non-linear oscillators emerge. Potential functions of these non-linear oscillators are rather complicated, but complementary to each other. It is shown that the equations of these non-linear oscillators can be solved exactly using Jacobian elliptic functions. In connection with these pendulum-like oscillators, a pair of non-linear wave equations are considered and simple solutions of these wave equations are also discussed briefly.     

Exceedance probability criterion based stochastic optimal polynomial control of Duffing oscillators

An optimal polynomial control strategy is developed in the context of the physical stochastic optimal control scheme of structures that is well-adapted to randomly-driven non-linear dynamical systems. A class of Duffing oscillators with polynomial active tendons subjected to random ground motions is investigated for illustrative purposes. Numerical studies reveal that using an exceedance probability criterion with the minimum of the failure probability of system quantities in energy trade-off sense, a linear control with the 1st-order controller suffices even for strongly non-linear systems. This bypasses the need to utilize non-linear controls with the higher-order controller which may be associated with dynamical instabilities due to time delay and computational dynamics. The statistical variability, meanwhile, of system responses gains an obvious reduction, and the system performance is significantly improved. The 1st-order controller, however, does not have the same control effect to the higher-order controller when control criteria currently in used are employed, e.g. system second-order statistics evaluation and Lyapunov asymptotic stability condition, as indicated in the comparative studies of the exceedance probability criterion against the two control criteria. Besides, the proposed optimal polynomial control is insensitive to the non-linearity strength of the class of base-excited non-linear oscillators whereby a robust control of systems can be implemented, while the LQG control in conjunction with the statistical linearization technique, using a band-limited white noise input, does not have this advantage.     

Stability of Contact Discontinuities for the 1-D Compressible Navier-Stokes Equations

In this paper, we study the large-time asymptotic behavior of solutions of the one-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes system toward a contact discontinuity, which is one of the basic wave patterns for the compressible Euler equations. It is proved that such a weak contact discontinuity is a metastable wave pattern, in the sense introduced in [24], for the 1-D compressible Navier-Stokes system for polytropic fluid by showing that a viscous contact wave, which approximates the contact discontinuity on any finite-time interval for small heat conduction and then runs away from it for large time, is nonlinearly stable with a uniform convergence rate provided that the initial excess mass is zero. This result is proved by an elaborate combination of elementary energy estimates with a weighted characteristic energy estimate, which makes full use of the underlying structure of the viscous contact wave.     

Heuristic search for a predictive strain-energy function in nonlinear elasticity

In this work, a new, quasi-structural model – bootstrapped eight-chain model – is proposed as a modification to the strain energy of eight-chain model [Arruda, E.M., Boyce, M.C., 1993. A three-dimensional constitutive model for the large stretch behaviour of rubber elastic materials. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 41, 389—412] that invokes the Langevin chain statistics. This development has been led to by our heuristic search into how the strain energy of eight-chain model may be adapted in order to account better for the mechanical behaviour of elastomeric materials in both linear and nonlinear elastic regimes [Treloar, L.R.G., 1944. Stress–strain data for vulcanised rubber under various types of deformation. Trans. Faraday Soc. 40, 59–70]. The eight-chain model appears to produce very similar results in predicting biaxial stress to those of a first stretch-invariant model that gives a good fit in uniaxial extension and, thus, it is shown that the former can not be significantly enhanced within the limitation of the latter. Evaluation of predictive capability for an additive invariant-separated form of strain energy shows that an explicit inclusion of a second stretch-invariant function would not work and that any thus added term ought to be dependent on both the first and second stretch-invariants of deformation tensor, and hints that an improvement is possibly needed at low strain. The composite and filament models [Miroshnychenko, D., Green, W.A., Turner, D.M., 2005. Composite and filament models for the mechanical behaviour of elastomeric materials. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 53 (4), 748–770] have their strain-energy functions in that suggested form and cope very well with predicting the experimental data of Treloar (1944). We use the form of strain energy for the filament model, that proved to be successful, to bootstrap the strain energy of eight-chain model in order to improve the performance of the latter at low strain. Thus, we derive a new model – bootstrapped eight-chain model – that requires only two material parameters – a rubber modulus and a limiting chain extensibility. The proposed model is quasi-structural due to bootstrapping and it retains the best traits and corrects the faults of the eight-chain model, conforming more closely to the classical experimental data of Treloar (1944).     

Experimental study of non-linear energy pumping occurring at a single fast frequency

Experimental verification of passive non-linear energy pumping in a two-degree-of-freedom system comprising a damped linear oscillator coupled to an essentially non-linear attachment is carried out. In the experiments presented the non-linear attachment interacts with a single linear mode and, hence, energy pumping occurs at a single ‘fast’ frequency in the neighborhood of the eigenfrequency of the linear mode. Good agreement between simulated and experimental results was observed, in spite of the strongly (essentially) non-linear and transient nature of the dynamics of the system considered. The experiments bear out earlier predictions that a significant fraction of the energy introduced directly to a linear structure by an external impulsive (broadband) load can be transferred (pumped) to an essentially non-linear attachment, and dissipated there locally without spreading back to the system. In addition, the reported experimental results confirm that (a) non-linear energy pumping in systems of coupled oscillators can occur only above a certain threshold of the input energy, and (b) there is an optimal value of the energy input at which a maximum portion of the energy is absorbed and dissipated at the NES.     

Relationship between multibody dynamics computation and nonlinear vibration theory

This paper presents the ground-work of implementing the multibody dynamics codes to analyzing nonlinear coupled oscillators. The recent developments of the multibody dynamics have resulted in several computer codes that can handle large systems of differential and algebraic equations (DAE). However, these codes cannot be used in their current format without appropriate modifications. According to multibody dynamics theory, the differential equations of motion are linear in the acceleration, and the constraints are appended into the equations of motion through Lagrange's multipliers. This formulation should be able to predict the nonlinear phenomena established by the nonlinear vibration theory. This can be achieved only if the constraint algebraic equations are modified to include all the system kinematic nonlinearities. This modification is accomplished by considering secondary nonlinear displacements which are ignored in all current codes. The resulting set of DAE are solved by the Gear stiff integrator. The study also introduced the concept of constrained flexibility and uses an instantaneous energy checking function to improve integration accuracy in the numerical scheme. The general energy balance is a single scalar equation containing all the energy component contributions. The DAE solution is then compared with the solution predicted by the nonlinear vibration theory. It also establishes new foundation for the use of multibody dynamics codes in nonlinear vibration problems. It is found that the simulation CPU time is much longer than the simulation of the original equations of the system.     

分布振子复合板的模态阻尼及多点激励下阻尼减振相关性

分布阻尼振子可拓宽结构减振频带,因此可将振子分布于板中以形成复合板（简称“分布振子复合板”）,进而实现较宽的减振频带．对于多点支撑处受到宽频非一致激励（例如在不同激励点处的激励频率、幅值与相位有差异）的分布振子复合板,目前还缺乏有效简便的优化控制指标．在作者之前的研究中,针对含分布振子的梁推导了基于模态应变能的模态阻尼计算理论,讨论了模态阻尼与单点激励下梁的减振效果的相关性,并应用于宽频减振设计优化．本文进一步将模态阻尼计算理论推广到分布振子复合板,并将研究从梁的单点激励扩展到板的多点非一致激励下的阻尼减振相关性．首先,在利用模态应变能法推导得到分布振子复合板的模态阻尼计算公式后,从理论上讨论了不同边界条件与模态阶次对计算结果的影响,以及计算理论的适用性．而后,进一步通过有限元参数分析了边界条件、频率比、模态阶次与质量比的影响．最后,通过算例分析了无振子板或分布振子复合板在四个激励点具有多种幅值与相位组合情况下的稳态响应．结果表明,推导的模态阻尼计算公式可正确预测不同边界条件下的模态阻尼,且理论预测的模态阻尼与基板的稳态平均加速度减小率、稳态峰值应变能减小率均有较高的相关性．     

Optimum design of wave transmitting joints

Transmission of wave energy through a one-dimensional wave transmitting system (e.g. a nonuniform elastic rod) is considered. The wave transmitting system consists of an input section with constant impedence, a joint with variable impedance and an output section with constant impedance. A given incident wave is to be transmitted through a joint of given length and mass connecting the input and output sections of given (constant) impedances. The efficiency of energy transmission (defined as the ratio of transmitted to incident wave energy) is maximized by seeking the optimum impedance function for the joint, i.e., the optimum distribution of the joint mass over its length. Efficiencies corresponding to the optimum joints are compared with those obtained for joints with constant impedance and it is found that significant improvements in the efficiency can be achieved. For a case studied in detail, improvements of up to 30 per cent are obtained. The optimum joint shapes turn out to be consisting of segments with very large and very small impedances. Experiments are reported which confirm these results and support the validity of the one-dimensional model.     

Complex dynamics and targeted energy transfer in linear oscillators coupled to multi-degree-of-freedom essentially nonlinear attachments

We study the dynamics of a system of coupled linear oscillators with a multi-DOF end attachment with essential (nonlinearizable) stiffness nonlinearities. We show numerically that the multi-DOF attachment can passively absorb broadband energy from the linear system in a one-way, irreversible fashion, acting in essence as nonlinear energy sink (NES). Strong passive targeted energy transfer from the linear to the nonlinear subsystem is possible over wide frequency and energy ranges. In an effort to study the dynamics of the coupled system of oscillators, we study numerically and analytically the periodic orbits of the corresponding undamped and unforced hamiltonian system with asymptotics and reduction. We prove the existence of a family of countable infinity of periodic orbits that result from combined parametric and external resonance interactions of the masses of the NES. We numerically demonstrate that the topological structure of the periodic orbits in the frequency–energy plane of the hamiltonian system greatly influences the strength of targeted energy transfer in the damped system and, to a great extent, governs the overall transient damped dynamics. This work may be regarded as a contribution towards proving the efficacy the utilizing essentially nonlinear attachments as passive broadband boundary controllers. PACS numbers: 05.45.Xt, 02.30.Hq     

Saturation of absorption of the powerful radiation of a system of anharmonic oscillators

Recently, the theory of nonequilibrium systems simulated by a set of anharmonic oscillators has received significant development. The investigation of such kinds of systems is especially important in the study of problems associated with the stimulation of chemical reactions and the development of effective molecular lasers. The systematic analysis of the kinetics of anharmonic oscillators assumes the simultaneous solution of a large number of nonlinear equations describing the population balance of the vibrational levels. Realization of this approach is associated with cumbersome numerical calculations and does not permit obtaining a qualitative picture of the behavior of the system as a function of the different parameters (pressure, temperature, etc.). An approximate analytical theory has been formulated in [1, 2] which permits finding the distribution function over the vibrational states with the effects of anharmonicity taken into account. We will employ the approach developed in these papers to describe a system of anharmonic oscillators under conditions of powerful optical pumping. This problem was discussed in [3], where it was found that such a system changes into a saturation mode in the case of high pumping levels. The existence of this mode is explained by the fact that the maximum rate of energy input into a vibrational degree of freedom is determined by the rate of distribution of this energy over all the vibrational levels, i.e., by the constant of V—V-exchange. For sufficiently large pumpings the approximation of the Boltzmann distribution function adopted in [3] in connection with the calculation of the saturation parameters is too crude. The goal of this paper is to derive in explicit form expressions for the vibrational energy supply, the absorbed power, and so on, under saturation conditions without the use of the approximation indicated above [3].Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 5, pp. 10–15, September–October, 1978.     

Recent advances in wave energy converters based on nonlinear stiffness mechanisms

Wave energy is one of the most abundant renewable clean energy sources, and has been widely studied because of its advantages of continuity and low seasonal variation. However, its low capture efficiency and narrow capture frequency bandwidth are still technical bottlenecks that restrict the commercial application of wave energy converters (WECs). In recent years, using a nonlinear stiffness mechanism (NSM) for passive control has provided a new way to solve these technical bottlenecks. This literature review focuses on the research performed on the use of nonlinear mechanisms in wave energy device utilization, including the conceptual design of a mechanism, hydrodynamic models, dynamic characteristics, response mechanisms, and some examples of experimental verification. Finally, future research directions are discussed and recommended.

     

Wave mixing in coupled phononic crystals via a variable stiffness mechanism

We investigate wave mixing effects in a phononic crystal that couples the wave dynamics of two channels – primary and control ones – via a variable stiffness mechanism. We demonstrate analytically and numerically that the wave transmission in the primary channel can be manipulated by the control channel's signal. We show that the application of control waves allows the selection of a specific mode through the primary channel. We also demonstrate that the mixing of two wave modes is possible whereby a modulation effect is observed. A detailed study of the design parameters is also carried out to optimize the switching capabilities of the proposed system. Finally, we verify that the system can fulfill both switching and amplification functionalities, potentially enabling the realization of an acoustic transistor.     

Trapping vibratory energy of main linear structures by coupling light systems with geometrical and material non-linearities

Cubic potential and hysteresis behavior (Bouc–Wen type) of a non-linear energy sink are used to localize the vibratory energy of a linear structure. A general methodology is presented to deal with time evolutionary energy exchanges between two oscillators. Invariant manifold of the system and its stability borders are detected at fast time scale while traced equilibrium and singular points at slow time scale let us predict possible behaviors of the system during its pseudo-stationary regime(s). The paper is followed by an example that considers the Dahl model for representing the hysteresis behavior of the non-linear energy sink. All analytical developments and results are compared with those obtained by direct integration of system equations. Obtained analytical developments can be endowed for designing non-linear energy sink devices with hysteresis behavior to localize vibratory energy of main structures for the aim of passive control, energy harvesting and/or both of them.     

Dynamics of self-excited oscillators with neutral delay coupling

The work is devoted to analytic and numeric investigation of dynamical behavior in a system of two Van der Pol (VdP) oscillators coupled by a non-dispersive elastic rod. The model is rigorously reduced to a system of nonlinear neutral differential delay equations. For the case of relatively small coupling and moderate delay, an approximate analytic investigation can be accomplished by means of an averaging procedure. The region of synchronization in the space of parameters is established and characteristic bifurcations are revealed. A numeric study confirms the validity of the analytic approach in the synchronization region. Beyond this region, the averaging approach is no more valid. A multitude of quasiperiodic and chaotic-like orbits has been revealed. Especially interesting behavior occurs in the case of relatively large delays and corresponds to sequential quenching and excitation of the VdP oscillators. This regime is also explored analytically, by means of a large-delay approximation, which reduces the system to a perturbed discrete map.