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Mathematical model of sea wave energy in electricity generation

Conference Paper · June 2011

DOI: 10.1109/PEOCO.2011.5970446

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 The 5th International Power Engineering and Optimization Conference (PEOCO2011), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia : 6-7 June
2011

Mathematical Model of Sea Wave Energy in

Electricity Generation
Baharin Abu Bakar1, Ismail Musirin2, Muhammad Murtadha Othman3, M.N.A Rahim4

! War, the effort in developing wave energy converter

Abstract-- This paper presents the conceptual model for
pressure amplification in harnessing sea wave energy to
generate electricity. It is named as AH Presto 1 which is the
short form for Air-Hydraulic Pressure Storage Version 1. The
idea of the concept is converting the air pressure generated
from undulating sea water free surface inside the oscillating
wave column (OWC) chamber adopting the concept done
from previous study by few scientists and to amplify the
hydraulic pressure which can be stored in hydraulic
accumulator for consistent pressure distribution source for
electricity generation. The OWC is commonly and widely used
in the existing wave energy converter (WEC) devices to
extract the energy from sea waves. Mathematical model is
used in proving the energy conversion and pressure
amplification. Initially, basic conceptual model is developed to
represent the whole process from the sea wave signal until the
final output. Several sub-modules have been developed to
integrate the complete system. Amongst the sub-modules are;
sea wave energy extraction and air pressure development
using OWC, air pressure to hydraulic pressure amplification,
hydraulic pressure storage; hydraulic pressure distribution,
gearing system and electricity generation. Mathematical
equations have also been derived in this study to represent the
processes involved in each stage.
Index Terms--Electricity generation device, Wave Energy
Converter, Oscillating Wave Column, Pressure amplification,
Pressure storage.
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy plays a big role in driving the economy. The total
worldwide energy consumption was estimated to be 474 x
1018 J in 2008 [1] but decreased by 1.1% for the first time
in 30 years in 2009 [2] due to the slowdown in economic
activities. The slowdown in economic was really affected
United States, European and some of the Asian countries.
Most of the energy in the world is generated using the
conventional way, mainly fossil fuel and coal [3] but the
wastes from the processes have affected the environment.
The conventional process which involves the burning of
fossil fuel products, coal and the process of nuclear
contribute to the air, soil and water pollution. The
emmission from the processes’ wastes have damaged the
ozone layer and led to the changing of climate and causing
global warming phenomenon as reported by Folley et. al. in
[4]. Fossil fuel and coal are non-renewable. It was reported
that the amount of fossil fuel and coal are decreasing by 5%
started from year 2005. In 1980’s and after First World
(WEC) has been reduced due to the drop of petroleum price
[5]. Kyoto Protocol, enforced reduction of CO2 emission to
the atmosphere, effect to climate changes, high oil prices,
reduction in fossil fuel quantity, influenced the increase of
research in sourcing alternative techniques inclusive of
WEC in many countries [7-8]. The former Chairman of
Shell, Lord Oxburgh, warned,”Crude oil prices can reach
up to USD 150 per barrel in the next two decades and any
government which does not take immediate measure and
strategies to convert its economy into clean renewable
energy production methods might be slept walking into
unprecedented crises” [8]. One of the most promising
renewable energy which has high power density is the
energy extracted from the sea wave [3, 11]. Wave energy is
more persistent compared to wind energy [7]. The non-
conventional resources are non polluting and has
continuous availability, attract the researchers to develop
new energy extraction system [5]. Ocean covers more than
70% of the earth’s surface and make it the largest power
source on earth. The global wave power was estimated at 1
TW (1 terawatt = 1012W) [7]. There have been many
reports on the efforts to convert the ocean energies into
usable energy such as electricity. Extracting the energy
from sea wave offshore began to be taken seriously since
1970’s [6]. Inventors that are impressed with the energy
produced by the ocean waves, had proposed many different
devices to extract wave power [7]. Not many has been
commercialized and most of them are still under the trial
mode. Existing design of WECs required strong sea waves
with high amplitude to collect the energy. That is why most
of them constructed offshore and north of the hemisphere.
They cannot work efficiently in area with small waves or
during calm sea with low amplitude of wave. The most
popular device of WEC is the OWC which is partly
submerged in the water with open-end at the bottom. The
trapped air on the upper part of the water free surface inside
OWC chamber is directed to the turbine to produce the
electricity. To get high amplitude sea wave, there were few
prototypes that had been built using vertical or horizontal
turbines [8, 10-11]. The nearshore wave energy has been
studied and found to be significantly small compared to the
offshore wave energy, but building the power plant
nearshore is more economical [6]. This paper presents the
conceptual model of sea wave energy in electricity
generation. The study involves the development of
mathematical model of each module for the whole system.

Baharin Abu Bakar at baharin_abubakar@yahoo.com II. DEVELOPED AH PRESTO MODEL

I. Musirin is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Most of the invented WECs convert the energy from sea
Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. (Tel/Fax: +603-55435044. E-mail: wave to usable energy directly without energy storage.
ismailbm@salam.uitm.edu.my)
M.M.Othman can be reached at mamat505my@yahoo.com Those systems totally depends on real time sea wave
M.N.A.Rahim can be reached at beta_ink@yahoo.com conversion result, if the wave is strong enough then the
978-1-4577-0353-9/11/$26.00 © 2011©2011
978-1-4577-0354-6/11/$26.00 IEEE IEEE

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 energy converted will be high. On the other hand, if the sea
wave is weak then the converted energy will be weak or no
energy will be converted at all. The most promising and
reached commercialized stage and widely used WEC is the
oscillating wave column (OWC). OWC becomes a part of
AH Presto 1 system in extracting the sea wave energy. AH
Presto 1 is a short form of Air-to-Hydraulic Pressure
Storage version 1. The conceptual model is illustrated in
Fig 2 Waveform
Fig.1.

Referring to a waveform shown in Fig. 2, the equation of an

SHM is given by:
2%
y " & sin (vt # x) (2)
$
Where:
!:sea wave amplitude (m)
v: wave propagation velocity (m/s)
": wave length (m)
t: wave cycle time (s)

A. Sea Wave Energy

The particle velocity v p , can be determined by
differentiating equation (2) with respect to time,
dy
Fig. 1 Conceptual Model of AH Presto 1 vp "
dt
The complete system consists of sea wave energy dy
extraction and air pressure development using OWC, air Thus, can be derived as
pressure to hydraulic pressure amplification, hydraulic dt
pressure storage; hydraulic pressure distribution, gearing
system and electricity generation. The sea incident waves dy 2%&v 2%
" cos (vt # x)
forced the sea water into the column of OWC through the dt $ $
submerged opening. This will cause the water free surface (3)
inside the column to lift upward. When the incident wave Work done per unit volume for a displacement of dy is
force is zero, the free water surface will stop raising and given by
starts to fall down due to gravity. This creates an oscillation
.d2y+
inside the column. The trapped air will be occupied on the W " Fd " 'ma (d " md ,, 2 ))
upper part of the free water surface inside the column. The - dt *
oscillation of the free water surface inside the column due
4 4% 2 & v 2 2% 1
to the incident wave action, displaces a volume flow rate of
W " 5 62 sin 'vt # x (/ dy
air and produces an oscillating air pressure. This oscillating
3 $
2
$ 0
air pressure will be directed to the Air-to-Hydraulic
Pressure Booster. The Air-to-Hydraulic Pressure Booster is (4)
a pressure amplification device. The amplified pressure or
pressure ratio from the Air-to-Hydraulic Pressure Booster is Work done at a distance y, ie:- 07 y
then stored in hydraulic pressure accumulator and shown
by the following equation:-
4 4% 2 & v 2 2% 1
y

Output oil _ pressure W " 5 62 sin 'vt # x (/ dy

Pratio " 0 3 $
2
$ 0
Input air _ pressure
(5)
Aair _ piston
" (1) Potential Energy PE, per unit volume can be determined as,
Ahydraulic _ piston Therefore,
2% 2 6v 2 4 2%
III. DEVELOPED MATHEMATICAL MODEL PE " & 2 sin 2 2 'vt # x (1/ (6)
$ 3$
2
The energy from a single incident wave entering the 0
OWC is taken as the beginning point. The sea wave
consists of potential energy (PE) and kinetic energy (KE). The kinetic energy per unit volume can be derived as,
Assume a particle on one point of the wave line. This
particle will follow the wave motion up and down results in 1 2
vibration. The vibrating particles produce a Simple KE " 6v p
Harmonic Motion (SHM) as can be illustrated in Fig. 2. 2

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 2% 2 6v 2 & 2 4 2% 1 h " 2& ,
KE " cos 2 2 'vt # x (/ and the displaced sea water is,
$ 3$
2
0
(7) V " 2%r 2 & (10)

From equation (6) and (7), we can determine the total By substituting equation (10) into equation (9), we have,
energy, 89!!generated per unit volume as resulted in 4% 3 6v 2 & 3 r 2
equation (8), E owc # sw " (11)
$2
ET " PE : KE C. Converted Energy
2% 6v &
2 2 2
The law of energy conservation states that energy can be
ET " (8) neither created nor destroyed. If we assume that the air
$2 inside the OWC is incompressible and by ignoring the
B. Developed Energy in OWC energy loss, the energy due the rising water free surface
The energy developed in the OWC can be represented
from the water flow in Fig. 3. When a volume of sea water E owc # sw is equal to the energy due to the air motion. That
enters the OWC through the submerged opened end, the means the volume displaced by the water free surface is
upward force generated and caused free water surface to equal to the volume displaced by the air, E owc # air .
rise in the opposite direction of the gravity.
E owc # sw " E owc # air

Therefore, from equation (11), we have,

4% 3 6v 2 & 3 r 2
E owc # air " (12)
$2
Where,
#: density of sea water (kg/m3)
r: internal radius of OWC (m)

D. Air to Hydraulic Pressure Amplification

Fig.3 Energy developed in OWC
The rising up of the free water surface developed an energy
termed as E owc # sw , resulted from the product of the
propagating wave and the volume of the sea water inside
the OWC. The volume of the free water surface is the
volume being displaced.
The energy developed inside the OWC due to the rising
up of free surface sea water can be determined as follows;
E owc # sw " ET V
where, V " %r h
2
V: volume of displaced sea water (m3)
r: internal radius of OWC (m)
h: distance of water free water surface travels from
lowest level to highest level (m)
Assuming that the lowest level of free water surface and the
highest level is equal to sea wave peak to peak, (that is
twice the amplitude), therefore;
The power generator requires high pressure and rotary
torque in ensuring that the mechanisms to function
accordingly. The characteristics of the sea wave and the
developed air pressure from the trapped air on the upper
side of the water free surface inside the column will be
considered [6]. It is known that the upward force, also
called as the lifting force of the free water surface is greater
as compared to the downward force. Fig. 4 illustrates the
flow of air in the air-to-hydraulic pressure booster. An
object will float if the water lifting force is greater than the
downward force. By differentiating equation (12), the force
generated due to the rising up of the free water surface can
be given by,
dE owc # air 8% 3 6v 2 & 3 r
" (13)
dr $2
" force , F
(9) This is the generated force at OWC and is then transferred
to Air-to-Hydraulic Pressure Booster primary section. The
pressure developed at the primary section, Pair can be
written as:
F
Pair " (14)
Aprimary
Where,
F: force acting on the primary piston developed
from OWC (N)

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 Aprimary: cross-sectional area of primary piston (m2) Aprimary: Cross sectional area of primary piston = 2 m2

The amplified pressure is shown in equation (17). This

amplified pressure is used to give high torque to rotate the
gearing system where the hydraulic motor is the driver.
This amplified pressure is directed to the hydraulic pressure
accumulator.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The developed model has been reviewed and checked
rigorously. The conceptual and mathematical models
should be able to function accordingly in order generate the
appropriate level of energy, forces and amplified pressure
for the purpose of electricity generation. Each model in
every particular stage has indicated that the mathematical
equations are correctly derived and verified. However, in
this paper no numerical results have been demonstrated
since the idea is to obtain the model which has capability to
generate electricity using the sea wave energy. Derivation
of related mathematical equations in each stage
demonstrated that all the relationships are true and
explainable.
!
Fig.4 Air-to-Hydraulic Pressure Booster V. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented the conceptual model of
electricity generation harnessing sea wave energy. Several
By substituting equation (13) into equation (14), air
mathematical models have been developed to represent the
pressure is given by;
relationship among the sub modules in the system. All the
developed mathematical equations have been validated and
8% 3 6v 2 & 2 r eventually the output will be able to generate electricity.
Pair = (15)
$2 Aprimary There are many types of WECs introduced earlier. Each
of WEC has its own capabilities and suitable for some
Force acting on primary section; Fprimary is equal to the force specific condition of sea wave. The earlier inventions give
acting on secondary piston Fsecodary. some guidance to the future inventions for better design and
this could result in a high standard efficiency sea wave
Fsecondary = Fprimary power plant. Future design of sea wave power plant has to
be suitable for any sea wave condition and location.
Therefore, from equation (13), we have;
8% 3 6v 2 & 3 r VI. ACKNOWEMENT
Fsec ondary " The authors would like to acknowledge the Ministry of
$2 Higher Education (MOHE) and The Research Management
The amplified pressure Pamp , can be determined by; Institute (RMI) for the financial supports of this research.
This research is jointly financed by MOHE under the
Fsec ondary Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) with project
Pamp "
Asec ondary code of 600-RMI/ST/FRGS 5/3/Fst (170/2010) and RMI
under the Excellence Research Grant Scheme under the
8% 3 6v 2 & 3 rk project code of 600-RMI/ST/DANA 5/3/Dst (278/2009).
Pamp " (16)
$2 A primary
REFERENCES
From equation (16), simplifying the equation; [1] Statistical Review of World Energy 2009, BP July 31, 2006.
Retrieved 2009. pp. 10-24

Pamp (v, & , $ ) "

'1.27 ; 10 (v6 2
& 3k
[2]
[3]
Global Energy Review in 2009, Enerdata Publication.
A.P. McCabe, A. Bradshaw, J.A.C. Meadowcroft, G. Aggidis,
“Developments in the design of the PS Frog Mk 5 wave energy
$2 converter” , Renewable Energy 31 (2006) 141-151.
(17) [4] M. Folley, T.J.T. Whittaker, A. Henry, “The effect of water depth
on the performance of a small surging wave energy converter”,
Ocean Engineering, Vol. 34, 2007, pp 1265-1274
Where,
[5] BS Borowy, ZM Salameh, Optimum Photovoltaic Array Size for a
#:density of sea water = 1025 kg/m3 Hybrid Wind/PV System, IEEE Trans Energy Convers 9(3), 1994,
v: velocity of propagation wave = (0!2 m/s) pp 482-488
!: wave amplitude = (0!4 m) [6] M. Folley, T.J.T Whittaker,”Analysis of the nearshore wave energy
r: radius of OWC cross sectional area. Let it be constant at resource”, Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 1709-1715
[7] Johannes Falnes, “A Review of Wave Energy Extraction”, Marine
1 Structures, Vol. 20, 2007 pp 185-201.
k: amplification factor (>1) [8] M. Leijon, O. Danielsson, M. Eriksson, K. Thorburn, H. Bernhoff,
": wavelength = (0!10 m) J. Isberg, J, Sundberg, I. Ivanova, E. Sjostedt, O. Agren, K.E.

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 Karlsson, A. Wolfbrandt, “An electrical approach to wave energy
conversion”, Renewable Energy 31 (2006). pp. 1309-1319.
[9] Technology White paper, ‘Wave Energy Potential on the U.S.
Outer Continental Shelf”, Minerals Management Services,
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Interior, May 2006.
[10] DV Evans, R. Porter,’Hydrodynamic Characteristics of an
oscillating water column devices’,Applied Ocean Research 17
(1995), pp 155-164
[11] Ruo-Shan Tseng, Rui-Hsian Wu, Chai-Cheng Huang,’Model study
of a shoreline wave power system’, Ocean Engineering 27 (2000),
pp 801-821.
[12] J. Falnes, “Optimum control of oscillation of wave energy
converters”, Main report: Wave Energy Converters: Generic
Technical Evaluation Study, Institutt of fysikk, NTH, Universitetet I
Trondheim, Norway, 1993.
[13] Temel Ozturk, Ayhan Demirbas, “Electricity Generation Using
Water Lifting Force”, Energy Exploration & Exploitation, Vol. 24
No. 4 and 5, 2006, pp 285-296.
[14] A. El Marjani, F. Castro Ruiz, M.A. Rodriguez, M.T. Parra
Santos,’Numerical modelling in wave energy conversion system’,
Energy 33 (2008), pp1246-1253
BIOGRAPHIES
Baharin Abu Bakar received Bachelor of
Science in Electrical & Electronics
Engineering from Napier University of
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom in
1995. He has been working in the industries
for the past 22 years. He was an engineer at
Motorola, Petaling Jaya, Selangor from 1995
to 2001; dealt with equipment maintenance and
machine enhancement. Then he worked at
Bluescope Steel as a reliability engineer from
2001 to July, 2004. In August 2004 until
September 2006, he was attached as a Senior Research Engineer to
Invenqjaya, a research and development company; dealing with water
desalination, hybrid car and self-propelled surf board oil spillage detection
system. He joined Standard Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia
(SIRIM) in November 2006 until June 2010. Then, he set up a research and
development company, HB AGRO Machineries in 2009. He is currently
working towards his MSc Research studies at the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
His research interest includes wave energy conversion to electricity,
machine design and engineering innovation.
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Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ismail Musirin obtained
Diploma of Electrical Power Engineering in
1987, Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons)
in 1990; both from Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia, MSc in Pulsed Power Technology in
1992 from University of Strathclyde, United
Kingdom and PhD in Electrical Engineering in
2005 from Universiti Teknologi MARA,
Malaysia. He is currently an Associate Professor
at the Centre for Electrical Power Engineering
Studies (CEPES), Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi
MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia. His research interest includes power system
stability, optimization techniques, distributed generation, biological
computing, computational intelligence and artificial intelligence. He is the
Past Chair, IEEE-PES Malaysia Chapter, member of Computational
Intelligence-IEEE, Senior Member of IACSIT, member of IAENG and
ARTIST.
Dr. Muhammad Murtadha bin Othman
received the B.Eng. (Hons) degree from
Staffordshire University, U.K., in 1998; the
M.Sc. degree from Universiti Putra Malaysia,
Serdang, Malaysia, in 2000 and Ph.D. degree
from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi,
Malaysia, in 2006. He is currently a senior
lecturer at the Centre for Electrical Power
Engineering Studies (CEPES), Faculty of
Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. His area of
research interests are artificial intelligence, transfer capability assessment
and reliability studies in a deregulated power system. He is a member of
IEEE.
Muhammad Norazam obtained the B.Eng.
(Hons) degree from Universiti Teknologi
MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia in 2008. He has
published several technical papers in the
international conferences. He is currently
working towards his MSc Research studies at
the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti
Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam, Selangor,
Malaysia. His area of research interest is in
optimization techniques such as bee colony
optimization technique, evolutionary programming, particle swarm
optimization and fuzzy logic. He also deals with operational strategy of
hybrid renewable energy system; and distributed generation.