JPH06280732A - Piezoelectric element flexing wave activated power generating set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To convert particularly wave energy into electric energy over a wave characteristic of wide range, in a wave activated power generating set suited for use in an oceanic observation buoy, offshore platform, etc. CONSTITUTION:According to up/down motion of a float 5 floated on the wavy sea surface 7, also a corrugated cam 4a of a perpendicular member 4 is up/down moved, and a supporting member 2, protrusively provided from a supporting wall 8 in a cantilever manner, is deformed to flex through a roller 3 brought into contact with the cam 4a. By deforming a piezoelectric element flexed integrally with the supporting member 2, generating action is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wave power generation device for generating electric power by the energy of waves, and more particularly to a wave power generation device suitable for installation on an ocean observation buoy, a work table on a sea surface, a floating artificial island and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a conventional wave power generator is shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 21 indicates the sea surface of the sea, 22 is a floating body (or a wave power generation ship), 23 is a buoyancy unit, 24 is an air chamber provided inside the floating body, 25 is a secondary air chamber, 26 is an air turbine,
Reference numeral 27 is a rotary shaft directly connected to the turbine shaft, 28 is a generator driven by the rotary shaft 27, and 29 is an electric wire for extracting generated power. Reference numeral 30 is a wavefront of the floating body, 31 is an intake valve, and 32 is an exhaust valve. With this conventional device,
The floating body 22 sways in accordance with the fluctuation of 21, and relative movement occurs between the wavefront and the floating body, so that the wavefront 30 moves up and down in the air chamber 24. Here, when the wavefront 30 relatively rises, the air is compressed in the air chamber 24, but this air is guided from the secondary air chamber 25 to the outside of the floating body 22 through the exhaust valve 32. The air flow generated at this time drives the air turbine 26, and the generator 28 accordingly generates electric power.

[0003]

By the way, in the conventional wave power generation device as described above, power is generated by driving the air turbine 26 such as a Wells turbine by creating a flow of air by the vertical movement of the sea surface. , There are the following problems. (1) Since the main size of the floating body is fixed, the wave response is also fixed, and therefore it cannot be applied universally to any sea surface with different wave height and wave period. In other words, the floating body is selectively designed for a specific wave range, has a limited recovery energy range, and is not applicable to a wide wave range. (2) High-level mechanical devices such as valve devices, air turbines, mechanical shaft devices, and generators are required as power generators. (3) There is a large decrease in efficiency when going through the stages of primary conversion (compressed air) and secondary conversion (generator) of energy, and the efficiency of converting wave energy into electrical energy is low.

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems, and makes it possible to efficiently convert wave energy into electric energy over a wide range of wave characteristics, and has a simple structure and energy conversion efficiency. It is an object of the present invention to provide a piezoelectric element bending type wave power generation device having high efficiency.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the piezoelectric element bending type wave power generation device of the present invention includes a support wall intersecting with the sea surface of the sea and a support wall above the sea surface of the sea. A vertically supported cantilever-shaped supporting member, an antifriction member attached to the tip of the supporting member, and a vertical wavy cam that is in contact with the antifriction member and extends vertically. A member, a slide bearing attached to the support wall so as to guide the vertical member up and down, and a floating body that supports the vertical member and floats on the wave sea surface. Accordingly, a piezoelectric element that bends integrally with the support member to generate electricity is provided.

[0006]

In the above-described piezoelectric element type flexural wave power generator of the present invention, the vertical member also moves up and down as the floating body moves up and down due to waves, which reduces the wavy cam of the vertical member and the tip of the supporting member. The support member is flexibly deformed by the interaction with the wear member. Then, since the piezoelectric element is flexibly deformed together with the support member, power generation is performed by the piezoelectric element.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A piezoelectric element bending type wave power generator as an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
Is a side view schematically showing the overall configuration, and FIG. 2 is a wiring circuit diagram thereof. As shown in FIG. 1, a support wall 8 such as a quay of a floating artificial island is provided so as to intersect the sea surface 7, and above the sea surface 7, a support member 2 in the form of a cantilever is formed from the support wall 8. It is installed almost horizontally. A roller 3 as an antifriction member is attached to the tip of the support member 2. Further, the vertical member 4 formed with the wavy cam 4a that is engaged with the roller 3 and extends in the up-down direction is
It is provided so as to be supported by the floating body 5 floating above.

Further, a slide bearing 6 is attached to the support wall 8 so as to guide the vertical member 4 up and down, so that the vertical member 4 having the wavy cam 4a and the floating body 5 can be prevented from wobbling. Has become. A power generation bending element 1 including a piezoelectric element (piezo element) 12 (see FIG. 2) that generates power by bending deformation is attached to the support member 2 by means such as bonding, and the power generation bending element 1 is a piezoelectric element. element
12 (see Fig. 2) is built in and insulated from the surroundings.
Then, the electric power generated by the piezoelectric element 12 is the electric cable 11
Through the rectifier circuit 9 to the load or the storage battery 10. (See Figure 2)

Since the piezoelectric element type flexural wave power generator of this embodiment is constructed as described above, when the floating body 5 moves up and down on the sea surface 7, the wavy cam 4a of the vertical member 4 also moves up and down. Will be done. Along with this, the roller 3 rolls while coming into contact with the wavy cam 4a, so that the support member 2 is flexibly deformed. Since the piezoelectric element 12 in the power generation bending element 1 is also flexibly deformed together with the support member 2, the piezoelectric element
Electric power is generated by the distortion of 12 and is sent to the load or the storage battery 10 via the electric wire cable 11 and the rectifier circuit 9.

As described above, in this embodiment, the wave energy on the sea surface 7 is directly absorbed as the vertical movement of the floating body 5, so that it is possible to cope with a wide range of wave characteristics (wave height, wave period, etc.) The energy of can be accurately converted into electric energy. In addition to the need for advanced mechanical devices such as conventional air turbines and generators, the wave energy can be distorted by transmitting the wave motion to the piezoelectric element (piezo element) with a simple mechanism. Can be efficiently converted into electric energy,
High power generation efficiency can be obtained.

[0011]

As described in detail above, according to the piezoelectric element bending type wave power generation device of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (1) Since the up-and-down movement of waves is directly absorbed by the floating body, it is possible to recover electric energy from waves over a wide range of wave characteristics. (2) No need for sophisticated mechanical equipment such as air turbines and generators. (3) Since the up-and-down movement of the wave can be directly converted into the strain of the piezoelectric element through a simple mechanism, the efficiency of converting the wave energy into electricity is increased and the power generation efficiency is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing an overall configuration of a piezoelectric element bending type wave power generation device as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a wiring circuit diagram of the device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional wave power generation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Power generation bending element 2 Support member 3 Roller 4 Vertical member 4a Wavy cam 5 Floating body 6 Sliding bearing 7 Wave sea surface 8 Support wall 9 Rectifier circuit 10 Load or storage battery 11 Electric wire cable 12 Piezoelectric element

Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Hironao Kasai 5-717-1, Fukahori-cho, Nagasaki-shi Nagasaki Research Institute, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A support wall that intersects the sea surface of the ocean, a cantilever-shaped support member that projects substantially horizontally from the support wall above the sea surface of the ocean, and an anti-friction attached to the tip of the support member. A vertical member having a corrugated cam extending in the vertical direction in contact with the member, a slide bearing attached to the support wall so as to guide the vertical member in the vertical direction, and the vertical member. A piezo-electric device provided with a floating body that supports a member and floats on the sea surface of the sea, and a piezoelectric element that bends integrally with the supporting member to generate electricity when the floating body moves up and down. Element bending type wave power generator.