Spin acceleration mechanism for wave energy converter using gyroscopic effect and geared feedback

To realize a small-sized floating-type wave energy converter, a vibrational power generator that uses the gyroscopic effect and a geared acceleration mechanism is presented. First, equations of motion for the spin acceleration mechanism are derived. Next, numerical analyses are presented to show that the spin velocity of the gyro-flywheel is accelerated or decelerated by the rotating vibration, and the convergent power generations at various vibration frequencies are calculated. In addition, a simple equation that expresses the relationship between the vibration and equipment parameters and the convergent power generation is derived. The result shows that the generated power is 10W when the flywheel diameter is 600mm, the weight is 20kg, the input frequency is 0.2Hz, and the amplitude is 10 degrees. Finally, an experimental apparatus with a spin acceleration mechanism containing a flywheel 300mm in diameter is fabricated to show that the experimental and calculated steady-state spin and precession velocities agree when the vibration period is 1.5 and 2.0s (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.