Quote (0100110 @ Tue, May 5 2009, 12:28am)
explain more
wave action in the ocean increases and decreases the distance between the water surface and the sea floor.
this wave action has variable frequency and variable amplitude.
normally amplitude is measured from either the crest or the trough to the center line of the wave action.
by moving the connection point to the bottom of the sea bed (under even the trough) you can take advantage of the full amplitude to generate energy.
I saw a show on TV where they were trying to make a wave action pump but it didn't work because the repeated wave action caused high stress on the metal and it broke and all their valuable equipment washed away.
So i got to thinking, how could you reduce the stress on the welds?
the problem with their design(or at least i'm assuming that is what the problem was) was the repeated non-constant stress at a high level of tension.
My idea for a design would include a mechanical to electrical generator setup with an incorporated flywheel embedded in the ocean floor.
then attached to this would be a long tether that would recoil into the base like a tape measure.
On the top of the tether would be a simple flotation device that would rise and fall as the waves come through.
the point of the design is to absorb some of the impact through the retracting tether//flywheel configuration.
Also, make the most likely thing to break the connection to the float so that if a super big wave comes through and causes more stress than the system can handle then the float just pops off and floats away, leaving the expensive tether and generator equipment safely on the bottom.
The force exerted on the generator could also be adjusted by changing the float configuration on the top (more or less air, additional floats, different sizes, etc)