RU2365780C1 - Wave electric power station - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: electrical engineering.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to electrical power engineering, particularly to electricity generating installations which convert energy of sea waves. The wave electric power station contains pivotally connected floats of a profiled floatation raft with a dynamic anchor, freewheel clutch and torque-limiting clutch. The electric power station is fitted with a self-adjusting bubble breaker, which includes a pneumatic blower driven by the former, starting from the head, floats of the profiled floatation raft, air pipe and an air-distribution pipe, placed on the arms of the dynamic anchor in the water space in front of the head float, and a device for automatic control of air release, for example in form of a stop valve activated by floats. Pivotal connections of the first floats are provided with pneumatic shock-absorbers, for example combined with pneumatic blowers. Drive wheels of these floats are linked with the latter through combination sleeves, which comprise freewheel clutch and torque-limiting clutch.

EFFECT: invention is aimed at designing a wave electric power station, capable of stable operation in any field operating conditions.

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Description

The invention relates to the field of electric power, in particular to power generating plants that convert the energy of sea waves. A number of such power plants, installed with a certain step along the coast, along with the production of electricity of standard parameters will reliably protect the coast from the most destructive waves.

There are a number of converters of wave energy into electrical energy. Among them, the efficiency of the selection of wave energy are considered the best "Salter" Duck and the Cockerell raft. However, the first of the mentioned power plants is not adapted to the orientation of the wave front, the second to the length of the latter. The main disadvantage of these converters is that their practical implementation is associated with unstoppable capital and operating costs with unacceptably large losses of energy in its transmission from the receiving device to the generator shaft.

These shortcomings hinder the widespread use of these power plants (V.A. Korobkov. Transformation of ocean energy, L. "Shipbuilding", 1986, p.140-142). Although the very idea of using a system of coupled floats in the form of Tsiolkovsky’s contour raft is the most promising in both wave energy and engineering protection of coasts from wave erosion (see ibid., P.133).

Known "point" converters of wave energy into electricity using various kinematic transmissions, including the "Wave energy machine" (US Pat. RU 2141057, CL 6 F03B 13/20), "Float wave power plant" (US Pat. RU 2037642, class. 6 F03В 13/16), as well as a power plant protected by patent RU 2221933, cl. F03B 13/18 on “Method for using the energy of sea waves and a device for its implementation”. The common disadvantages of these devices include low efficiency in the selection of wave energy, the imperfection of the mechanism of its transmission to the generator shaft, the instability of its rotation frequency, and, consequently, the parameters of the received electric energy. In addition, all of them are unable to significantly weaken the sea waves, which are dangerous for the coast.

The well-known "Wave power plant", developed in JSC "Belgorod plant of power engineering" (US Pat. RU 2147077, CL 7 F03B 13/16), containing a frame with a platform and floats connected by a block of bevel and spur gears and gears with a shaft power take-off, on which a flywheel and a clutch are installed for connection with an electric generator. It has floats fixed on rods of unequal length with a common axis and having the shape of a trihedral prism with protruding faces, independent in their relative movements, and the space between the side floats is made to allow free passage of the wave to the middle float.

In the presence of a valuable idea of the dispersal of floats perceiving both the potential and kinetic energy of the waves in the direction of their movement, as well as the independent transfer of the rod force to the common shaft with the flywheel, this installation has a number of disadvantages: it is rigidly connected to the base fixed on the seabed therefore, its efficiency depends heavily on the direction of movement of the waves. This also complicates its installation in deep-sea places; the number of floats is clearly not enough for uniform selection of wave energy during their period, while a weaker wave that comes after a strong one is not able to effectively affect the kinematic system of the installation due to the insufficient speed of lifting the floats; even an energy-satisfactory flywheel operation is not able to maintain the rotor speed of alternating current generators within normalized limits; the design of the floats does not guarantee their accurate operation in case of severe sea waves, when in the coastal zone (in shallow water) the leading edge of the wave rises abruptly and even capsizes, and, finally, the installation, designed for use in coastal zones, is not able to protect the coast from wave erosion.

The closest analogue of the claimed device (prototype) is a wave power station (WPP) according to patent RU 2313690 F03В 13/20, which contains articulated floats of a contour raft with a dynamic anchor, free-wheel clutch and limit torque clutch, a kinematic system with a common multi-link cardan shaft, connected by power transmission with each float, as well as with an electric generator - through a flywheel and a speed stabilization device.

The disadvantage of this wind farm is the lack of effective protection from the most dangerous waves, which requires its equipped with an automatic warming system, accompanied by a weakening of the shore protection function, as well as poor protection of the power transmission from transcendental and shock dynamic loads - even if there is a limit torque coupling at the end of the driveshaft. In addition, buffer limiters for the mutual rotation of the floats do not exclude shock effects on their hinge joints.

The task of the invention is the creation of a wave power plant capable of stable operation in any actual operating conditions.

The task is achieved in that the wave power plant containing articulated floats of the contour raft with a dynamic anchor, freewheels and clutches of ultimate torque, according to the invention is equipped with a self-adjusting pneumatic breakwater, including pneumatic blowers driven from the first, counting from the head floats of the contour raft, duct and an air distribution pipe placed on the consoles of the dynamic anchor in the water space in front of the head float, and the device automatically air control, for example, in the form of shutoff valves driven by buoys, while the articulated joints of the first floats are equipped with pneumatic shock absorbers, for example, combined with pneumatic blowers, and the drive wheels of these floats are connected to the latter through combined couplings, including a freewheel and limit clutch moment.

Equipping a wind farm with a self-adjusting pneumatic breakwater, selectively acting on waves of different heights approaching it, partially quenches them to a safe level, followed by the conversion of the remaining energy by an electric generator and pneumosuperchargers.

The installation of pneumatic shock absorbers on the hinged joints of the floats will not only exclude shock loads at extreme angles of their mutual rotation, but will also allow the use of shock absorbers energy when reversing it.

Equipping the drive wheels of the floats with limit torque couplings will eliminate the dangerous loads on the wind farm transmission.

To explain the invention, the following drawings are presented: figure 1 shows a General view of a wind farm; figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the head float along the axes of the pneumatic cylinders located near its side walls; figure 3 is a view of "A" on the combined coupling (according to the drawing in figure 2); in Fig.4 is a section "BB" of the coupling shown in Fig.3.

The inventive wind farm consists of floats 1 (Fig. 1), combined into a contour raft, equipped with a known (from the description of the wind farm - prototype according to Pat. RU 2313690) transmission with a flywheel and an electric generator, as well as a dynamic anchor. The first (counting from the head) floats 1 are equipped with pneumatic blowers 2 (Fig. 2), for example piston, with air intake pipes 3 and valves: inlet 4 and exhaust 5, air ducts 6 connected to the receiver, represented in this case by the head float, as well as located on mounted consoles 7 of the dynamic anchor with a transverse perforated air distribution pipe 8 with shutoff valves 9 connected to wave height sensors in the form, for example, of buoys 70 with adjusting balances 11; in addition, the aforementioned first floats 7 are equipped with limit torque couplings containing a drive disk 72 (FIGS. 3 and 4), a driven disk 13, pressed, for example, by a disk spring 74, a friction insert 15, and structurally combined with freewheels in a combination clutch through which the body of the float is kinematically connected with each of its drive wheel.

The inventive wave power plant works like this. Under normal conditions, when the wave height does not exceed the calculated value, the work of the wind farm is practically no different from the work of its prototype: the longitudinal contour of the raft, consisting of floats 7, repeats the profile of a moving wave that decays as its energy is taken, which is why the speed of relative rotation adjacent floats 7 in the direction from the head to the machine is reduced, which is offset by a changing gear ratio in the links of the transmission. This ensures the selection of energy by all floats, the rotation speed of which is behind the rate of change of the profile of the wave passing under them. With such an intensity of excitement, the buffer stops for the floats 1 even of the first pair, including the head one, do not reach the rods of the pneumatic blowers 2, and the forces in the transmission remain within the calculated limits.

With increased excitement, the buffer stops at the first pairs of floats 1 begin to act on the spring-loaded rods of pneumatic blowers 2, and atmospheric air is fed through intake pipes 3 and valves 4 and 5 into the inner space of the head float receiver connected by air ducts 6 to an air distribution pipe 8 mounted on consoles 7 At the same time, wave height sensors - buoys 10, tuned using counterweights 77, monitor the height of the incoming wave and, in accordance with it, supply the necessary volume of air through the shutoff valve 9 (m lkimi jets) in the stretch of water in front of the raft power. The resulting water-air mixture due to its low density and good compressibility effectively dampens the wave to a safe level (New Polytechnical Dictionary, M. 2003, Art. “Wave breaker” on page 83, ill. On page 84). Moreover, if the rafts are installed with a certain step necessary for their maneuver associated with a change in the direction of the waves, air distribution pipes with a length exceeding the width of the raft in this case are capable of - and even more so - damping the wave between the rafts, i.e. on the way to the protected coast, through appropriate distribution of air flow.

In the case of particularly sharp impacts on the head float of a steep wave or heavy floating objects, the residual energy during its rotation is accumulated in pneumatic shock absorbers, which are the piston devices considered above, compressing air in a closed space (with exhaust valves already closed 5). Such shock absorbers exclude shock loads on the hinged joints of the floats and return the energy stored by them when the latter are reversed.

Any overloads associated with a sharp acceleration of the rotation of the floats are removed by the clutches of the maximum moment at the very beginning of the power transmission, which ensures its protection against breakdowns and intensive wear. The magnitude of the limiting moment is determined by the force of the spring 14 and the coefficient of friction of the working surfaces of the disks 12 and 13 in pairs with the friction material of the insert 15.

Equipping the wave power plants with the described devices will completely solve the problem of protecting the wind farms themselves and the coast located behind them in almost any emergency situations. In addition, the idea discussed here of using float pneumatic blowers for air supply of pneumatic breakwaters will find wide application in the engineering protection of coastal and offshore structures.

Claims (1)

A wave power plant containing articulated floats of a contour raft with a dynamic anchor, freewheels and limit torque couplings, characterized in that the power station is equipped with a self-adjusting pneumatic wave breaker, including pneumatic blowers driven from the first, counting from the head floats of the contour raft, duct and air distribution placed on the consoles of the dynamic anchor in the water in front of the head float, and an automatic discharge control device air, for example, in the form of shut-off valves driven by buoys, while the hinges of the first floats are equipped with pneumatic shock absorbers, for example, combined with pneumatic blowers, and the drive wheels of these floats are connected to the latter through combined couplings, including a freewheel clutch and a torque limit clutch.

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