Analysis of a wave roller energy-harvesting device

A form of energy is called “renewable energy” when it is available free and has no greenhouse gas emissions. Sun, waves, winds, tides and biomass are sources of renewable energy. Nowadays, a major importance is given to renewable energy sources in order to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels that will one day be depleted. The exploit of many renewable energy sources such as sun and wind power have progressed to a relatively high level. However, sea waves are an important source of renewable energy that is not yet developed in Lebanon. For this purpose, in this paper, a wave roller energy harvesting system has been designed and manufactured. The aim of this work is to determine the drag coefficient and to perform a stress analysis on this wave roller device: a system that harvests the sea wave energy to produce electricity. This study will present the numerical results obtained using high fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Also, a stress analysis study showed that the designed roller resists against the external forces predicted in the CFD study. The designed device is manufactured and tested on the Lebanese coast.