A laboratory study on paddle type wave energy converter for transferring seawater using wave energy

Abstract

Using wave energy for desalination is recently noticed by researchers and authorities. This is known in industry as wave to water and is especially vital for regions/islands where have access to seas and oceans but suffer from shortage of drinking water. Some devices are developed to perform this operation in industry sector as well as academic studies performed in this regard, yet study on geometrical optimization of these devices is required. Studies aiming to optimize the wave energy convertor (WEC) geometry are expensive in eld. As a result, investigations are divided into numerical and experimental studies in which the former requires validation by observed data. In this paper, a preliminary experimental study on parameters affecting the performance of a paddle type WEC, such as paddle width, water depth, coast slope, and wave frequency period on the performance of the converter is conducted by running laboratory tests. This kind of WEC is used in industry. Analysis to scale up the results are provided and discussed in detail.