Design and Experiment of a New Wave Power Conversion Device for Self-Powered Sensor Buoy

The power supply system design of a marine data buoy system is a challenge. Due to cost reasons, it is difficult for marine buoys to obtain electricity directly from the power grid. At present, marine buoys use solar energy, wind energy or wave energy to supply power to sensors. Among them, the employment of wave energy and solar energy has broad application prospects due to the complementary power production of these sources. This paper presents a new wave energy conversion (WEC) device for a marine buoy, which is composed of a floating body and a power generation device. In addition, a three-dimensional finite element simulation model of the buoy movement is established, and the simulation is carried out using hydrodynamic software. On the basis of simulation, experiments are carried out on a 50 kg core power generation unit to estimate the power generation performance of the proposed WEC device.