A Self-Reacting Point Absorber With a Novel Mechanical Motion Rectifier as Power Takeoff System

A two-body self-reacting point absorber is proposed in this paper. This two body system is designed as a floating buoy and a bottom sphere. The energy is harvested through the relative motion between these two bodies. A mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) is used as the power takeoff (PTO) system. The PTO system will experience engagement and disengagement under wave excitation. Due to this nonlinearity, a time domain model is developed. The influences of the PTO parameters such as the equivalent inertia mass and equivalent damping on the absorbed power are obtained in regular waves. The system parameters were chosen to maximize the absorbed power. The performance of this device in irregular waves was also investigated.© 2014 ASME