Date of Award

2020

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Dr. Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

Team 12 was selected by Anthony Baro of E2SOL located in Fall River, Massachusetts to help them develop a product with given customer specifications. Recent market research has shown that the design of a buoy equipped with sensors would appeal to a larger consumer base if it were able to perform reliably during prolonged overcast conditions. Today, most buoys today are powered by solar panels. This sparked an effort to utilize a concept well documented in physics; the Faraday type generator, powered by the kinetic energy and potential energy of a passing wave. The team researched the topic, collected a reference database of scholarly articles and previously filed patents. From this, one hundred and twenty design concepts were drafted, each with a different approach at either power generation or efficiency of wave-energy utilization. A Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was performed on the array of potential designs, this combined with guidance from the sponsor, have presented the team with a clear path to take for an optimized prototype, and in addition, due to the open ended nature of this project, other experiments that can be run in tandem with the manufacturing of the prototype, that will better answer the initial project statement given by the sponsor. “Under x conditions, the buoy will produce y power.”

For the working model and initial prototype, a simple design was selected to guarantee a deliverable can be produced. Further optimizations will be made in the future. The prototype will consist of linear alternators inside the buoyancy foam that compose the buoy housing. These tubes will be wrapped in magnet wire that acts as the coils in the faraday generator. As the buoy moves over the waves, the force of gravity pulls the magnets back and forth through the coil, this in turn induces a current in the coils, which can be used to charge the battery of the buoy's sensors.

A prototype was designed and analyzed based on the buoy dimensions. The governing laws of magnetism are complex, and the effect of some parameters may go unnoticed in analysis of the formulas to someone without a strong understanding of the field. From this assumption the team investigated experimental results just as thoroughly as mathematical models, and this has proven to be invaluable towards producing the best possible design.

Comments

Sponsor: E2SOL; Anthony Baro

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