A Fully Enclosed Multi-mode Wave Energy Converter Based on Cable Parallel Mechanism

This paper proposes a fully enclosed multi-mode wave energy converter based on cable parallel mechanism. The wave energy converter seals all moving components in a fully enclosed shell to avoid seawater corrosion. In addition, a three degree of freedom cable parallel mechanism is designed to absorb wave energy from multiple modes. Waves cause relative motion of the inertial mass and the shell, resulting in the change of cable length which drives PTO to generate electricity. This paper first describes the working principle of the fully enclosed multi-mode wave energy converter based on cable parallel mechanism, then analyzes the kinematics of the proposed wave energy converter, and derives the relationship between the cable length and the relative motion of the inertial mass and the shell. Then, the equation of motions of the device is derived, and the motion response of the device under wave excitation is analyzed. The results indicate that the proposed wave energy converter can form steady-state vibrations with waves in multiple modes, which means that the fully enclosed multi-mode wave energy converter based on cable parallel mechanism has good potential in improving the capture efficiency.