Other

John L Berg

Paul T Wegener

A wave energy harvester (A) includes an element (A) that converts forward and/or backward of water in a wave (A, B, C) passing the harvester (A) into upward and/or downward movement to thereby increase the vertical amplitude of the harvester (A) relative to the sea floor (A, B, C). In most preferred aspects, the element (A) is a hydrofoil that is coupled to the harvester (A). Further preferred aspects include those in which part of, or the entire harvester (A) has a neutral buoyancy, and where energy is extracted from the downwards movement of the neutrally buoyant part (A) after a wave has lifted that part (A).

Configurations and methods for wave energy extraction

A wave energy harvesting apparatus of the type employing laterally spaced-apart floats arranged so that the up and down movements of the floats in response to the wave motion are out of phase with each other and can be used to drive one or more pumps is configured to maintain a fixed orientation with respect to the direction of wave motion and is adapted, on the basis of local wave characteristics, to maximize the average power output. This adaptation may be provided by means including initial selection of the overall size of the apparatus and subsequent adjustments made to the pumping mechanism. The preferred pumping arrangement employs three pumps, each having a piston with one end removably pivotally attached to a pumping arm near one of the floats. Each piston reciprocates, with a stroke much longer than its diameter, within a respective neutrally buoyant cylinder that is pivotally attached to a body float.

Wave motor

A wave motion energy harvesting apparatus of the invention comprises a float portion detachably interfitted with and axially moveable with respect to a hydrodynamically resistive portion. The float portion of this apparatus is moored by means of a line attached adjacent its vertical axis, but the hydrodynamically resistive portion is neither anchored nor moored except by its being interfitted with the float portion. Both the float and the hydrodynamically resistive portions are separately configured to have their mass distributed evenly about a common vertical axis of the apparatus. The float portion of the apparatus is nearly neutrally buoyant and comprises an automatically filled water ballast tank.

Stable wave motor

Wave actuated pump apparatus providing paired pump and main floats positionable in horizontally spaced relation on a body by liquid and joined together by an elongated arm having an end rigidly secured to a smaller pump float and an opposite end pivotally attached to the larger main float so that the arm is subject to angular displacement relative to the main float as the floats are displaced vertically with respect to each other in response to wave action in the body of liquid upon which the apparatus floats. A linearly actuatable pump pivotally secured between the arm and the main float pumps a desired fluid in response to the angular displacement of the arm relative to the main float. Operative pairs of the floats, each constituting a pumping unit, are grouped together in proximity to each other and held in such relationship by frame means with the members radiating outwardly in desired angularly spaced relation so that no two pumping units are parallel and hence no more than one pumping unit can be broadside to the travel of the waves at any one time. The pump and main floats are formed to take on water and increase their weight under high or choppy wave conditions, and are formed for automatically releasing the additional water when calmer conditions prevail.

Wave actuated pump apparatus

A wave pump apparatus includes a number of upstanding cylinders connected together by a subframe. Each cylinder mounts a float on the outside of the cylinder connected to a piston within the cylinder. The upstanding cylinders are spaced approximately a distance of half of an average wave length from the main floats of a particular wave pattern such that as certain floats are moving upwardly, other floats are moving downwardly. Each cylinder is connected to a chamber at the bottom thereof with an inlet valve and an outlet valve, such that as the piston in the cylinder is moving upwardly, it will draw in water, and as the piston moves downwardly in the cylinder, it will pump the water.

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Oak Hill, FL, United States of America

John L Berg