Physical Model Performance of Wave Energy Converter Based on Water Mass Gravity Force under Container Shape Variation

To date there has not been an adequate information on the effects of container shape on the power take off (PTO) performance of wave energy converters (WEC) based water mass gravity force of that was developed at the Hydraulics Laboratory, University of Hasanuddin Indonesia. In this work, physical model investigations were carried out to study the influence of three different type of container shape on the PTO performance of the proposed WEC. In this experiment, cube, cylindrical and spherical plastic container shapes were employed respectively. Each container shape was operated at similar wave parameters and the captured energies were measured, analyzed and compared. The results showed that the cylindrical container produce the highest power take off, followed by cube and sphere shapes respectively. Furthermore, the ability of the proposed WEC to reduce the wave amplitude was shown highest recorded percentage under sphere container shape, however it produced the lowest power take off. Moreover, cube container has a moderate performance on PTO and wave height reduction capability. The result obtained can be used as reference for further research on the development of wave energy converter based on water mass gravity force as a renewable energy source.