An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal Energy
Unmanned underwater vehicles play an important role in ocean observation and exploration; however, they do not have long endurance due to energy limitations. This paper proposes an energy self-sufficient underwater profiling buoy that uses ocean thermal energy for buoyancy propulsion and as a power...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Polish Maritime Research |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/pomr-2024-0049 |
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| author | Wang Xiaohao Yang Yanan Yin Songwei Meng Xianghui |
| author_facet | Wang Xiaohao Yang Yanan Yin Songwei Meng Xianghui |
| author_sort | Wang Xiaohao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Unmanned underwater vehicles play an important role in ocean observation and exploration; however, they do not have long endurance due to energy limitations. This paper proposes an energy self-sufficient underwater profiling buoy that uses ocean thermal energy for buoyancy propulsion and as a power supply, to enable long-term ocean observations. Based on the principle of operation of the proposed buoy, an energy balance model is established that is used to calculate the energy captured by the heat exchangers and the energy consumption of the devices on board. The energy self-sufficiency rate is defined as an indicator for evaluating the impact of the key configuration parameters of the buoy on the energy self-sufficiency performance, which depends on the diving speed, diving depth, and system pressure of the accumulator. In addition, a buoyancy compensation unit with two accumulators is installed on the buoy to compensate for the impact of variations in seawater density on the buoyancy propulsion performance and to overcome buoyancy loss. When the diving speed of the buoy is around 0.24 m/s and the diving depth is above 900 m, the accumulator has an initial pressure of 10 MPa, a driving pressure of 11.1–17.9 MPa, and a charging pressure of 20 MPa, and the energy self-sufficiency rate of the buoy exceeds 100%. This work provides theoretical guidance for realising energy self-sufficiency for other unmanned underwater vehicles. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-31c7a99359554f4b85c91f7a5c227556 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2083-7429 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Polish Maritime Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-31c7a99359554f4b85c91f7a5c2275562025-02-10T13:26:05ZengSciendoPolish Maritime Research2083-74292024-12-01314435810.2478/pomr-2024-0049An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal EnergyWang Xiaohao0Yang Yanan1Yin Songwei2Meng Xianghui3Key Laboratory of Mechamism Theory and Equipment Design, Ministry of Education. Tianjin University, ChinaKey Laboratory of Mechamism Theory and Equipment Design, Ministry of Education. Tianjin University, ChinaKey Laboratory of Mechamism Theory and Equipment Design, Ministry of Education. Tianjin University, ChinaKey Laboratory of Mechamism Theory and Equipment Design, Ministry of Education. Tianjin University, ChinaUnmanned underwater vehicles play an important role in ocean observation and exploration; however, they do not have long endurance due to energy limitations. This paper proposes an energy self-sufficient underwater profiling buoy that uses ocean thermal energy for buoyancy propulsion and as a power supply, to enable long-term ocean observations. Based on the principle of operation of the proposed buoy, an energy balance model is established that is used to calculate the energy captured by the heat exchangers and the energy consumption of the devices on board. The energy self-sufficiency rate is defined as an indicator for evaluating the impact of the key configuration parameters of the buoy on the energy self-sufficiency performance, which depends on the diving speed, diving depth, and system pressure of the accumulator. In addition, a buoyancy compensation unit with two accumulators is installed on the buoy to compensate for the impact of variations in seawater density on the buoyancy propulsion performance and to overcome buoyancy loss. When the diving speed of the buoy is around 0.24 m/s and the diving depth is above 900 m, the accumulator has an initial pressure of 10 MPa, a driving pressure of 11.1–17.9 MPa, and a charging pressure of 20 MPa, and the energy self-sufficiency rate of the buoy exceeds 100%. This work provides theoretical guidance for realising energy self-sufficiency for other unmanned underwater vehicles.https://doi.org/10.2478/pomr-2024-0049ocean thermal energyunderwater profiling buoyenergy balance modelenergy self-sufficiencybuoyancy compensation |
| spellingShingle | Wang Xiaohao Yang Yanan Yin Songwei Meng Xianghui An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal Energy Polish Maritime Research ocean thermal energy underwater profiling buoy energy balance model energy self-sufficiency buoyancy compensation |
| title | An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal Energy |
| title_full | An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal Energy |
| title_fullStr | An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal Energy |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal Energy |
| title_short | An Energy Self-Sufficient Underwater Profiling Buoy Powered by Ocean Thermal Energy |
| title_sort | energy self sufficient underwater profiling buoy powered by ocean thermal energy |
| topic | ocean thermal energy underwater profiling buoy energy balance model energy self-sufficiency buoyancy compensation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/pomr-2024-0049 |
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