U.S. Department of Energy Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC)
Team Name: MADWEC 3.0
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, New Bedford, Massachusetts
Team deliverables
- Poster: MADWEC (Maximal Asymmetric Drag Wave Energy Converter)
- Presentation: AUV Charging Station Powered by The Maximal Asymmetric Drag Wave Energy Converter (MADWEC)
- Report: AUV Charging Station Powered by The Maximal Asymmetric Drag Wave Energy Converter (MADWEC)
Vision and mission: Why this competition?
Team MADWEC 3.0’s vision is to inspire Boston-area high school students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers and the blue economy initiatives by giving presentations about our work. Our team collaborates with students of many disciplines to complete a design-oriented project to make a lasting impact on the field of renewable energy—ocean energy harvesting specifically. We will finish and optimize the prototype for the Maximum Asymmetric Drag Wave Energy Converter (MADWEC) system.
Background
The MADWEC 3.0 team is multidisciplinary and well-poised to tackle competition challenges. The design team is comprised of nine undergraduate engineering students -- five mechanical and four electrical engineering. The business team consists of two undergraduate members studying marketing. The team is supported by two faculty advisors who have a vast range of knowledge in the marine energy sector as well as an electrical engineering professor and past MADWEC member. The team will also employ the assistance of Dr. Peter Karlson at the Charlton College of Business to build our marketing of this potential groundbreaking device.
Due to COVID-19 there have been major supply chain issues which has created roadblocks when ordering parts. The pandemic has made it challenging for community outreach since many high schools will not allow presenters during this time. In-person meetings have been infrequent due to the transmissibility of COVID-19 and the consequences of a potential exposure. This has slowed the progress of the team by limiting our in-person collaboration.
Strategy
We are building and testing a MADWEC at UMass Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology.
Testing the prototype will involve a winch and pulley configuration. The winch will create tension in the tether, which will pass through the reel and convert it to mechanical energy. The mechanical energy will ultimately be converted into electrical energy in the batteries at the bottom of the PTO. Our goal is to program the winch to best emulate sinusoidal wave conditions.
Once we confirm that the PTO can withstand the range of both high and low sea states, design optimization and wave tank tests will follow. We will use a tachometer to record the speed of the reel, a decade box to measure electrical energy, and a load cell to transmit voltage readings to a laptop interpreting tension in the line.
All calculations were performed using a bottom-up approach that ensures the generators will not be over torqued and the load cell functions within allowable limits.
Social media accounts
Twitter: @UMassD
Twitter: @UMassD_SMAST
Instagram: @umassdsmast
Instagram: @umassd
This portal is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) under Contract Number DE- AC36-08GO28308 with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Contract Number DE-AC05-76RL01830 with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Contract Number DE-NA0003525 with Sandia National Laboratories, as part of the MHK Data Communities project. The United States Government retains, and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes.