Wave energy converter internship

Wave energy converter internship

Subject description:

SBM Offshore is developing a Wave Energy Converter, WEC S3, based on ElectroActive Polymer, EAP, Dielectric Elastomer Generators, DEG. The basis of such WEC is an elastomeric tube of several hundreds of meters long, which is radially deformed by a resonance that is induced by a moving pressure differential field created by the waves.

The Power Take-Off, PTO, refers to all systems and components involved in the conversion of the mechanical deformation of the generator rings to electrical power at the output of the system into the grid. The PTO harvests the energy in the DEGs (DC converters) and transfers it to the grid (AC converters). More details about this architecture will be communicated later.

A model and a control law of the complete Wave Energy Converter will be developed. The anticipated steps are shown below:

1. Time based simulation of the system (Matlab Simulink)
   • Simulation of the global system WEC in worst and best cases,
   • The DEGs modeling must be coupled with a wave and deformation simulation model,
2. State representation of the system
   • Analyze and model the dynamics of the system in worst and best cases,
   • The representations must be correlated to the waves and the DEGs current deformation
3. Experimental validation
   • Validation of the modeling by comparison using a test bench currently under construction.
4. The law of harvesting control will be studied as next step (not mandatory). 

Required profile : End of engineering studies project or equivalent / Electrical Specialization