One of the most interesting (for engineering and physics nerds) technologies to come out of the 1990's, while they were first theorized in 1968 it took over 30 years before researchers could develop the first application of a metamaterial, altering the magnetic properties of a material. As our understanding of metamaterials grows the number of potential uses have skyrocketed. Articles dealing with creating "The Cloak of Invisibility" have received some of the greatest attention, but some of the other uses should not be ignored. Researchers have created so called superlenses, earning the name as a result of their ability to see at resolutions once considered impossible ex. viewing a protein under an optical microscope. While metamaterials that work within the electromagnetic spectrum receive more press coverage, researchers are also utilizing the underlying physics of the technology to guide the energy of physical waves, including seismic, acoustic, and hydraulic wave-forms.
The ability to guide the energies of ocean waves has tremendous implications, from the DoD's efforts to eliminate energy lost to wave action on Naval vessels to cloaking ocean structures from tsunamis. What I would like to suggest is utilizing these wave guide technologies into ocean energy production.
The available wave energy from the world's oceans has been estimated to be roughly 2 trillion watts, or enough power to help 8 Del'Oreans to travel back to 1955 (in non-science fiction terms this would be the equivalent of powering 800 Million American households) While the available ocean energy is tremendous, the sea is also one of the harshest environments for energy production, the technologies needed to provide an affordable generating platform are still being developed.
What I would suggest is using a network of structures intended to focus the energy of waveforms that occur most frequently in a given area. By concentrating the energy of the waves onto a single point engineers would minimize the number of moving parts and consequently critical failure points. (see figure 1 below) The site of the concentrated wave action could utilize any number of suggested wave capture technologies. The concentrated energy of the wave system would also allow for additional safety features on the generating element, further increasing the systems life expectancy. The likely ecological benefits of using a complex structure as opposed to the guide wall approach used by the Wave Dragon would stem from allowing organisms to flow more naturally around the structure as needed.
The primary rational for having the metamaterial configuration for energy concentration versus the solid wall approach being implemented by the Wave Dragon platform (besides the fact that it would be awesome), is based off a personal theory as to the robustness of a walled approach for a floating platform, it is my belief that a metamaterial structure would allow for more redundancy in the structure, increasing survivability. Additionally conversations at an MREC conference in 2012 highlighted that the more variable the wave forms a given generator would have to accommodate, the greater the potential cost of the system through outs a given life expectancy. A metamaterial wave guide would concentrate the force of some of the most common wave frequencies while (hopefully) more chaotic elements would only minimally interact with the platform. In Figure 2 you can see how the amplitude of the wave grows as it comes closer to the focal point of energy production.
The largest concern for this wave generator proposal is that of cost efficacy, while the design is intended to reduce the quantity of moving parts for a given production capacity, the installation of the wave guides is far from a non-trivial component of the overall cost. That being said with the huge reliability and availability of wave power for coastal communities, it is my opinion that at least some degree of research would be worth the investment. Accounting for the maintenance of the guide pylons is another consideration as bio-fouling has the ability to drastically alter the geometry of a given wave guide.
The wave generator system should be thought of as a renewable energy deployment platform, not just a hydro-kinetic generator. The tops of the wave guide pylons could have wind turbines or solar panels mounted on them, transforming them from simple inert structures to more surface area for offshore energy production. The interior volume of the pylons might also be considered for pumped air energy storage, (an slightly different version of the idea, and one more) as proposed by the MIT Energy Initiative or pumped hydro-electric. The two storage mechanisms could work in tandem with the pumped hydro being utilized during low tide and the pumped air energy storage being utilized during high tide. The interior volume of the pylons might also be considered for a micro-server farm, being in a location with relatively constant sea temperatures (or at minimum cold enough to benefit processor cooling), while not necessarily optimal for all applications, it could serve as a very remote back up location for important data.
TL:DR (what I was trying to say was) energy developers could use crazy geometries to build a structure intended to concentrate the energy of ocean waves onto a small point, theoretically lowering the cost of producing energy from ocean waves
During my research I cam across a selection of articles I didn't necessarily fit into this narrative but they either informed comments to one degree or another or might be useful for further reading
people actually researching into the idea.
This groupd of post docs based in France is doing some work associated with water based metamaterials, but not for wave form concentration (as I can barely understand from their abstracts)
List of other Wave generating technologies
http://mhk.pnnl.gov/wiki/images/5/58/Wave_Energy_Utilization.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power
http://www.icrepq.com/icrepq-08/380-leao.pdf
http://www.oceanrenewable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/futuremarineenergy.pdf
Using Metamaterials for Hiding sea craft from ocean waves
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/a-submarine-that-doesnt-make-wav.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Invisibility-Cloaks-Could-Hide-Ships-from-Waves-256723.shtml
Alternative wave generator
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141118712000648
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycloidal_Wave_Energy_Converter
The Metamaterial that I used as a reference (now I realize as it was a cloak design it was probably a poor choice, but you know... I was making it up)
http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.com/2011/01/newly-developed-cloak-hides-underwater.html
Background research on wave energy
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~shs/Wave%20Energy/thorpe%20review%20.pdf
The ability to guide the energies of ocean waves has tremendous implications, from the DoD's efforts to eliminate energy lost to wave action on Naval vessels to cloaking ocean structures from tsunamis. What I would like to suggest is utilizing these wave guide technologies into ocean energy production.
The available wave energy from the world's oceans has been estimated to be roughly 2 trillion watts, or enough power to help 8 Del'Oreans to travel back to 1955 (in non-science fiction terms this would be the equivalent of powering 800 Million American households) While the available ocean energy is tremendous, the sea is also one of the harshest environments for energy production, the technologies needed to provide an affordable generating platform are still being developed.
What I would suggest is using a network of structures intended to focus the energy of waveforms that occur most frequently in a given area. By concentrating the energy of the waves onto a single point engineers would minimize the number of moving parts and consequently critical failure points. (see figure 1 below) The site of the concentrated wave action could utilize any number of suggested wave capture technologies. The concentrated energy of the wave system would also allow for additional safety features on the generating element, further increasing the systems life expectancy. The likely ecological benefits of using a complex structure as opposed to the guide wall approach used by the Wave Dragon would stem from allowing organisms to flow more naturally around the structure as needed.
 |
| Fig 1: Potential appearance of a the wave generator, (lacking a deep understanding of geometric requirements of a meta material lens the configuration above is arbitrary (my bad)) |
 |
| Fig 2 Cutaway view of the metamaterial wave power plant. |
The largest concern for this wave generator proposal is that of cost efficacy, while the design is intended to reduce the quantity of moving parts for a given production capacity, the installation of the wave guides is far from a non-trivial component of the overall cost. That being said with the huge reliability and availability of wave power for coastal communities, it is my opinion that at least some degree of research would be worth the investment. Accounting for the maintenance of the guide pylons is another consideration as bio-fouling has the ability to drastically alter the geometry of a given wave guide.
The wave generator system should be thought of as a renewable energy deployment platform, not just a hydro-kinetic generator. The tops of the wave guide pylons could have wind turbines or solar panels mounted on them, transforming them from simple inert structures to more surface area for offshore energy production. The interior volume of the pylons might also be considered for pumped air energy storage, (an slightly different version of the idea, and one more) as proposed by the MIT Energy Initiative or pumped hydro-electric. The two storage mechanisms could work in tandem with the pumped hydro being utilized during low tide and the pumped air energy storage being utilized during high tide. The interior volume of the pylons might also be considered for a micro-server farm, being in a location with relatively constant sea temperatures (or at minimum cold enough to benefit processor cooling), while not necessarily optimal for all applications, it could serve as a very remote back up location for important data.
TL:DR (what I was trying to say was) energy developers could use crazy geometries to build a structure intended to concentrate the energy of ocean waves onto a small point, theoretically lowering the cost of producing energy from ocean waves
During my research I cam across a selection of articles I didn't necessarily fit into this narrative but they either informed comments to one degree or another or might be useful for further reading
people actually researching into the idea.
This groupd of post docs based in France is doing some work associated with water based metamaterials, but not for wave form concentration (as I can barely understand from their abstracts)
List of other Wave generating technologies
http://mhk.pnnl.gov/wiki/images/5/58/Wave_Energy_Utilization.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power
http://www.icrepq.com/icrepq-08/380-leao.pdf
http://www.oceanrenewable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/futuremarineenergy.pdf
Using Metamaterials for Hiding sea craft from ocean waves
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/a-submarine-that-doesnt-make-wav.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Invisibility-Cloaks-Could-Hide-Ships-from-Waves-256723.shtml
Alternative wave generator
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141118712000648
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycloidal_Wave_Energy_Converter
The Metamaterial that I used as a reference (now I realize as it was a cloak design it was probably a poor choice, but you know... I was making it up)
http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.com/2011/01/newly-developed-cloak-hides-underwater.html
Background research on wave energy
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~shs/Wave%20Energy/thorpe%20review%20.pdf
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